Only 90/1,000 fertilizer production facilities have licenses.

According to the Vietnam Fertilizer Association, the country has nearly 1,000 fertilizer production facilities with about 5,000 products of all kinds; of which, only 90 facilities have licenses. The production and trading of fake, poor quality fertilizers using "hoe and shovel" technology continues to occur and is becoming more sophisticated, causing losses of about 2 billion USD/year.

Fake fertilizers discovered by Ho Chi Minh City Market Management.

"Concrete" the fields

Last week, at the exchange of experiences in preventing the production and trading of fake and poor quality fertilizers in the Southern region organized by the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the PetroVietnam Fertilizer and Chemicals Corporation, Mr. Do Thanh Lam, Deputy Director of the Market Management Department (QLTT), said that in recent years, fertilizers have been one of the seven key items in quality inspection and control. The market management force nationwide has handled nearly 100,000 related violations, fined nearly 400 billion VND, and seized about 1,000 tons of fertilizers of all kinds. However, the production and trading of fake and poor quality fertilizers and other violations are still complicated, increasingly sophisticated, with collusion from within and outside the country.

Mr. Pham Van Cuong (Lam Dong Market Management Department) said that taking advantage of remote and isolated areas where people have little information, producers and traders have put fake and poor quality fertilizers into consumption in many forms, using sophisticated and professional tricks; mixing fake goods with genuine goods; goods that do not guarantee quality with quality goods, selling them at low prices (paying later) to small retail stores to attract buyers..., causing damage to farmers and greatly affecting the crop and land sectors. Common violations discovered recently are: fertilizer production that does not meet the permitted quantitative error level compared to the applied announced standards, fake quality fertilizers, fake trademarks of reputable brands, violations of product labels... For example, the case of Phuc Quynh Production, Trade and Service Company Limited (HCMC) producing fake fertilizers with the protected trademark of Thien Phu Nong Company, using value-added invoices that had been cleared and canceled with the tax authority to legalize fake goods and sell them to businesses in Lam Dong.

The Vietnam Fertilizer Association said that while previously the production of fake fertilizers was carried out on a large scale, now it is being done on a small scale. These establishments accept to sell at low prices, pay in installments, and only need to pay 50% in advance to make a profit. When discovered, they immediately change the design. Instead of using flour as a binder, these establishments use clay or stone powder, which when bought by farmers to fertilize their crops, risks the fields being "concretized". In many localities in the Mekong Delta or the Central Highlands - two areas hot with fake and counterfeit fertilizers, many fertilizer dealers are equipped with concrete mixers to mix fake fertilizers. Therefore, the quality of this fertilizer is equivalent to... soil!

Hands tied and tolerated

Although every year, the authorities discover many cases of production and trading of fake and poor quality fertilizers, only 0.3% of the violations can be prosecuted criminally. Mr. Nguyen Minh Trung (Dong Thap Market Management Department) pointed out the difficulties. Decree 163/2013/ND-CP does not stipulate the authority to handle administrative violations for the Market Management Department (the authority to impose penalties is specialized inspectors), causing difficulties in performing the task. When checking the quality, the goods cannot be kept, but must wait for inspection. The high cost of inspection and long time affects the effectiveness of handling because when the results are available, the violating facility has sold all of them to farmers, unintentionally creating conditions for fake and poor quality fertilizers to circulate on the market. The inspection also has problems with errors. If the first inspection results in violations, the facility has the right to request a second inspection, but errors always occur. And according to the regulations of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the second result is the final conclusion. Another difficulty is contacting and coordinating with businesses and associations in providing information, supporting detection in inspection and handling. There are many cases where businesses are counterfeited or imitated but choose to remain silent, not wanting to make a big deal out of fear of affecting their business, when buyers are afraid of the situation of real and fake mixed. But the biggest problem is the handling when detecting fake, poor quality fertilizers produced by units outside the province, only the act of trading in poor quality fertilizers can be punished; as for the act of production, the locality where the unit produced can only be notified for handling.

However, according to the Vietnam Fertilizer Association, the current situation is also caused by localities and functional sectors, specifically the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Department of Industry and Trade. Due to the small force, many officials are still weak in knowledge, some places have lax management, even indulgence (such as the case of the specialized inspector of Vinh Long province or the captain of the Market Management Team in Long An being arrested...), showing that if not promptly corrected, these shortcomings will make the situation more complicated. These are loopholes that need to be overcome soon if we want the production and trading of fertilizers to be in order.

According to Saigongiaiphong