Coffee, pepper, and many other key agricultural products of Vietnam are facing the risk of significant restrictions on exports to the European Union (EU) from 2025, as the region is expected to strengthen food safety monitoring measures. This could pose significant challenges for Vietnam's agricultural sector, especially when the EU introduces new regulations on sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS) for imported food.

According to recent reports from the Vietnam SPS Office under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Secretariat of the World Trade Organization (WTO) SPS Committee has sent to EU members proposals for maximum residue levels (MRLs) for a number of active ingredients. These regulations are being put out for consultation in August 2024 and are expected to be applied from February 2025.

Specifically, some new active ingredients have been set with maximum residue levels (MRLs) and some old active ingredients have had their residue levels adjusted, with a reduction of hundreds of times compared to current regulations. These changes will make exporting Vietnamese agricultural products to the EU more difficult.

The list of affected products includes many important agricultural products such as coffee, pepper, rice, durian, banana, mango, and vegetables such as onions, garlic, and chili. These are Vietnam's main export products to the EU market and have contributed greatly to our country's export turnover over the past many years.

The EU's tightening of quality of imported agricultural products will be an opportunity for sustainable businesses. Photo: Vietnamplus

In particular, two agricultural products with high export value, coffee and tea, will face great challenges when the maximum residue level (MRL) for some active ingredients in the new EU draft is reduced from 0.05ppm to only 0.01ppm. This means that Vietnamese coffee and tea exporters will face stricter control over product quality before entering the EU market.

Not only coffee and tea, Zoxamide, a widely used active ingredient in agriculture, will also be subject to tighter regulations. For example, for okra products exported to the EU, the old maximum residue level was 0.02ppm, but the new draft only allows 0.01ppm. In addition, for vegetables such as lettuce, salad, and spinach, the residue level has also been sharply reduced from 30ppm under the old regulations to 0.01ppm.

These changes are not only a challenge for exporting businesses but also have a major impact on farmers and domestic producers. Stricter regulations from the EU will force businesses to invest more in technology and production processes to meet these high standards. This means that production costs may increase, reducing profits for agricultural exporters.

To overcome these challenges, Vietnam needs to quickly adapt and improve product quality to meet the new EU requirements. This requires close coordination between businesses, farmers, and authorities in improving production processes, strictly controlling quality, and ensuring compliance with food safety regulations.

Keeping informed about changes in EU policies and being prepared to adapt will be the key for Vietnamese agricultural products to continue to maintain and expand their export markets to the EU. Only then can Vietnam ensure its position in the international market, while protecting the economic interests of domestic businesses and farmers.