Coffee, pepper, and rice… will be very difficult to enter the EU from 2025. Why?

Exporting coffee and agricultural products to the EU will face many difficulties in 2025.

Coffee, pepper, and many other key agricultural products of Vietnam exported to the European Union (EU) are expected to face many difficulties in 2025 when this region strengthens food safety monitoring measures.

Many items, including durian, banana, mango, vegetables such as onions, garlic, and chili, and even items including rice, tea, coffee, and products of animal origin, are also subject to new adjustments on strengthening phytosanitary measures (SPS) for imported food into this region. There are 2 newly established active ingredients and 2 old active ingredients, with commonly adjusted concentrations reduced by hundreds of times compared to the current regulations. This will make Vietnam’s agricultural exports to the EU much more difficult.

The Vietnam SPS Office (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) said that the Secretariat of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) SPS Committee has just sent to EU members to seek opinions regarding the EU’s proposal for maximum residue levels (MRL) for some active ingredients. The comment period for these proposals is in August 2024 and is expected to be applied in February 2025.

Accordingly, with the active ingredient Zoxamide, Vietnam has okra products exported to the EU that are subject to control measures at the border gate. The maximum residue level according to the old regulation is 0.02 ppm, but the new draft only allows 0.01 ppm. Most notably, for vegetables such as lettuce, salad, and spinach, the old concentration is 30 ppm, but the new draft is only 0.01 ppm.

Notably, for Vietnam, coffee and tea are products with high export value; the concentration according to the regulation is 0.05 ppm, but now it is only 0.01 ppm.

With the active ingredient acetamiprid, banana products, according to the old regulation, have a concentration of 0.4 ppm, but the new regulation is 0.01 ppm; bell pepper and sweet pepper products from 0.3 are now only 0.09 ppm; tomatoes from 0.5 ppm to 0.06 ppm…
In addition, the EU also applies control to 2 new active ingredients, fenbuconazole and penconazole. Of these, for Vietnam, the citrus fruit group and the nut group, such as cashew nuts, macadamia nuts, etc., have a very low concentration of only 0.01 ppm. Okra is also a product that continues to be controlled with these 2 substances, and the concentration is also only 0.01 ppm. With these two active ingredients, important Vietnamese products will be subject to the 0.01 ppm concentration, such as rice, coffee, spices, and honey, with the same 0.05 ppm level.
Dr. Ngo Xuan Nam, Deputy Director of the Vietnam SPS Office, advised: The EU plans to apply these regulations from February 2025. Thus, manufacturers have 6 months to prepare for appropriate adjustments. If we grasp information promptly, proactively adjust, and control the residue levels of the above 4 active ingredients, we are confident that we will meet EU regulations.

Source: Thanhnien.vn