Regarding information suggesting that traceability will create a "green lane" in agricultural exports, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development asserts that this understanding is inaccurate.

At the press conference on the occasion of the 101st anniversary of Vietnam Revolutionary Press Day (June 21, 1925 - June 21, 2026) organized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on the morning of June 17 in Hanoi, Mr. Nguyen Van Long, Director General of the Department of Science and Technology, provided information on the deployment status of the Agricultural Product Traceability System across the country.

Nearly 20,000 products have participated in the traceability system

According to Mr. Nguyen Van Long, traceability is not a newly established task in recent times but was regulated many years ago in the Law on Product and Goods Quality and specialized legal documents. Since 2019, after the Prime Minister issued Project 100 on the deployment, application, and management of the traceability system, ministries, sectors, and localities have step-by-step organized its implementation.

However, this activity was previously deployed mainly on a small scale, concentrated within a number of enterprises, cooperatives, or production households. Data remained scattered, lacking interconnectedness and failing to form a unified system serving management and monitoring work as well as satisfying the increasingly high requirements of the market.

Faced with requirements to raise the growth quality of the agricultural sector and build a transparent, modern production, in 2025, leaders of the Party and State directed the stepping up of traceability deployment for the agricultural, forestry, and fishery commodity groups. On that basis, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development issued multiple plans and guiding documents, and organized synchronous deployment across the entire country.

To create a legal foundation for this activity, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development coordinated with the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and related agencies to review the system of legal normative documents. Within this, the Ministry of Public Security was assigned to chair the drafting of a decree on product authentication, encompassing traceability contents; the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development continues to finalize processes, standards, and technical guidance serving deployment.

In parallel with institutional finalization work, the Ministry organized a series of conferences and meetings with localities, commodity industry associations, enterprises, and technology solution providers to unify implementation options. Many large enterprises in the fields of rice, livestock, fruits and vegetables, seafood, tea, and coffee have participated in building traceability systems for their products.

Up to June 12, 2026, the Agricultural Product Traceability System has recorded 18,500 products belonging to 112 product groups; 919 shipments; connecting the data of 547 farming households, 255 growing areas, and 149 enterprises across 26/34 provinces and cities nationwide. The system is currently operated on an online platform, while concurrently developing a mobile device application to facilitate conditions for producers, enterprises, and management agencies during the process of updating, exploiting, and authenticating information.

For the durian industry—the commodity selected for the very first pilot—to date, there have been 3 containers successfully exported to the Chinese market with full traceability data updated on the system. According to the plan, starting July 1, 2026, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will expand deployment to many other key commodity sectors such as rice, meat, eggs, milk, pineapples, passion fruit, tea, and agricultural products with demands serving domestic consumption as well as export.

Traceability is not an export priority mechanism

One of the contents receiving public concern recently is whether the deployment of traceability equates to forming a “green lane” for export goods.

Clarifying this issue, Mr. Nguyen Van Long asserted that this is an incomplete understanding. According to Mr. Long, Vietnam's agricultural export activities are currently executed on the basis of complying with Vietnamese law, international regulations, and protocols signed with each importing market. Within the current legal system as well as protocols on agricultural export, the concept of a “green lane” as a distinct priority mechanism dedicated to products that have executed traceability does not exist. “Traceability is merely one of the tools helping to demonstrate that products are manufactured according to the correct processes, quality-controlled, food safety-guaranteed, and possess clear origins,” Mr. Long emphasized.

In other words, traceability does not replace quarantine, testing, or technical standard requirements currently applied by importing markets. Enterprises wishing to export must still fully satisfy regulations related to food safety, plant quarantine, animal quarantine, and other technical requirements. However, in a context where many markets are increasingly tightening standards on quality, transparency, and responsibility in the supply chain, traceability is becoming an almost mandatory requirement for many agricultural commodity groups.

Through the traceability system, management agencies, enterprises, and import partners can identify the entire production process of a product, from raw material zones, production establishments, harvesting, preliminary processing, and processing to transportation and distribution. This not only helps raise consumer trust but also creates favorable conditions for handling arising issues related to product quality.

Notably, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development sent an official dispatch to the General Administration of Customs of China (GACC) to introduce Vietnam's Agricultural Product Traceability System, promote data connection and information authentication, and step-by-step head toward recognizing traceability data serving export activities. This is considered an important step to enhance the capacity to transparentize Vietnam's agricultural supply chain, while creating additional bases for international partners to trust product quality and reliability.

In the coming period, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will continue to finalize the system in a direction interconnected with specialized databases, ensuring the capacity to authenticate data, maintain information security, and connect with national management platforms. Besides, training and guidance work for enterprises, cooperatives, and citizens will continue to be stepped up. The Ministry also coordinates with related ministries and sectors to finalize connection and data-sharing mechanisms, step-by-step building a synchronous, modern traceability ecosystem.

According to experts, in the context of increasingly fierce competition in the international market, traceability is not only a management tool but also a vital condition to raise competitiveness, build brands, and increase value for Vietnamese agricultural products. Forming a unified traceability system across the entire country will contribute to promoting the digital transformation of the agricultural sector, enhancing market transparency, and creating a foundation for long-term sustainable development.

The Agricultural Product Traceability System is being vigorously deployed nationwide by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to transparentize the supply chain, raise product quality, and satisfy market requirements. However, the management agency asserts that traceability is not a mechanism creating a “green lane” or a distinct priority for export goods.

Source: Bao Cong Thuong