Following series of Conferences held in 2015, on June 13, 2016, in Can Tho City, the Market Surveillance Agency (Ministry of Industry and Trade) in coordination with PetroVietnam Fertilizer and Chemicals Corporation (PVFCCo) held the “Conference for communicating and sharing experiences in acting against legal violations in fertilizer production and trading”.

The Conference was attended by Mr. Do Thanh Lam – Deputy Director General of the Market Surveillance Agency (Ministry of Industry and Trade), Mr. Truong Quang Hoai Nam – Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee, Head of the National 389 Steering Committee of Can Tho City; Mr. Tran Ngoc Hanh – Director of Can Tho City”s Public Security, Mr. Doan Van Nhuom – the Corporation”s Chairman along with 200 delegates who are leadership representatives of subordinate units of the Market Surveillance Agencies, Vietnam Chemicals Agencies, Departments of Industry and Trade, Market Surveillance Officers of Southern provinces, representatives of enterprises and agencies trading fertilizers in 21 Southern cities and provinces.

Regarding the legal violations in fertilizer production and trading, Mr. Do Thanh Lam reported that over the past few years, fake and disqualified fertilizers have developed intricately and increasingly, causing serious impacts on farmers due to gaps and lack of consistency of the law and law applications. Each year, the market surveillance force handles over 3,000 violations on average, confiscating nearly 1,000 tons of fake fertilizers in many kinds. The Conference was held with the aim of finding solutions to help overcome difficulties in management and acting against fake and low quality fertilizers on the market.

Speaking at the Conference, Mr. Doan Van Nhuom – PVFCCo”s Chairman said: Fake and low quality fertilizers as well as legal violations in fertilizer production and trading have been increasing, causing serious impacts on authentic farmers and enterprises producing and trading fertilizers. Therefore, PVFCCo, with due appreciation and awareness of the responsibility towards the community, has been cooperating closely with governmental authorities in handling legal violations in fertilizer production and trading. He affirmed that the Conference was a significant opportunity for market surveillance agencies to discuss, share experiences; and a forum for fertilizer enterprises and stores to share their thoughts and wishes.

At the Conference, delegates listened and discussed ideas of the Market Surveillance Agencies of cities and provinces, namely Can Tho, Ho Chi Minh and Kien Giang, on the market situation, local violations in fertilizer production and trading, and experiences on supervision and control of production and trading of fake and low quality fertilizers. All ideas confirmed the increasingly complicated situation of production and trading of low quality fertilizers,including: counterfeiting quality (Potassium made from ground bricks, NPK made from soil, etc.); goods with quality below standards, goods  faked famous brands, using low quality fertilizers to make finished products, etc. Meanwhile, the ideas addressed several difficulties, questions and suggestions on policies such as: The Decree No. 163/2013/NĐ-CP of the Government on sanctions in the field of chemical fertilizers does not stipulate in details the authority of the market surveillance force. Moreover, the force is loose and inexperienced in inspecting the fertilizer trading – especially the lack of certified officers for fertilizer sampling; the inconsistency of regulatory penalty levels; the process of fertilizer sampling and inspection is time-consuming; the penalties are not high enough to produce preventive effect on entities and enterprises.. The delegates also sent their petitions to the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Market Surveillance Agency,  and proposed several solutions to increase the efficiency in inspecting and handling violations on fertilizer production and trading in the coming time.

In the program, representatives of Vietnam Chemicals Agency and the Market Surveillance Agency introduced to the Conference some legal documents related to fertilizer field and some regulations on handling administrative violations in fertilizer trading: The Decree No. 202 and Circular No. 29 – some questions in implementation and solutions.

 At the Conference, enterprises shared their hands-on experiences in acting against fake fertilizers, among which PVFCCo”s presentation was highly appreciated by the Conference. Enterprises also discussed and raised questions to the Market Surveillance Agency and were answered whole-heartedly to their satisfactory.

Below are some photos: