This is the comment of Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Hoang Trung at the Conference "Strengthening state management on the code of growing areas and packing facilities" taking place on August 24, 2023 in Lang Son city.

The conference focused on comprehensively assessing the current status of code management, such as the issuance of codes, post-issuance inspection and supervision, and maintenance of conditions of growing areas and packing facilities, thereby indicating shortcomings and limitations that need to be overcome.

Deputy Minister Hoang Trung said that Vietnam is showing its role as a responsible food supplier in the international market. In addition to firmly ensuring food security for more than 100 million people in the country, over a 10-year period, Vietnam's agricultural, forestry and fishery exports have increased from $27.4 billion in 2013 to $53.2 billion in 2022. In which, 5/6 key agricultural, forestry and fishery products with export value of over 3 billion USD are products of plant origin including: wood and wood products, cashew nuts, rubber, vegetables, rice.

However, participating in FTAs also requires people and businesses to improve their own capacity and management skills to meet high technical requirements for the quality and packaging of agro-forestry-fishery products. Therefore, it is very important to control the quality at the source and have a food safety control system and plant quarantine.