Vietnamese Durian, Jackfruit And Heavy Metal Explosion Again! The Customs Will Inspect Each Lot

Durian and jackfruit from Vietnam have once again been found to contain excessive levels of the heavy metal cadmium during recent import inspections of Vietnamese fruits, according to local customs authorities in Nanning and Kunming. Earlier, China's General Administration of Customs has repeatedly issued relevant warnings, in March, the General Administration of Customs on about 30 batches of Vietnamese durians exported to China issued a heavy metal cadmium warning; In June, another 77 batches of Vietnamese durians exported to China were reported to have similar problems, involving numerous packaging plants and orchards. The occurrence of the exceedance again this time indicates that the problem has a certain persistence and has not been effectively solved, which needs to arouse high vigilance of all parties.

According to the bilateral protocol, the competent authorities of China and Vietnam have decided through consultation to implement stricter testing on each batch of Vietnamese durian and jackfruit exported to China from December 1, 2024 to June 1, 2025. Fruits must be tested for cadmium content by an accredited laboratory in Vietnam, and qualified products can be exported with an inspection report. At the same time, a number of Vietnamese fruit packaging factories have been cancelled export qualifications to China due to relevant regulations.

Recently, the Friendship Customs held a policy briefing on the problem of excessive heavy metals in imported Vietnamese durian and jackfruit. The following measures will be taken to import jackfruit and jackfruit from Vietnam: First, customs will inspect every batch of durian and jackfruit imported from Vietnam to China; Second, increase the intensity of on-site inspection, in strict accordance with the General Administration standard operation; Third, goods that cannot provide a report from a Chinese approved testing agency and exceed the standard of heavy metals will be returned to the country of origin or destroyed; Fourth, the customs will strictly control the test report issued by the Vietnamese laboratory, and if the Chinese side tests the same batch of goods again, it will cancel the accreditation of the laboratory report.

At the same time, the customs emphasized its important role in the supervision of imported and exported food, which must meet the relevant standards of the two countries. Food safety is related to consumer health and trade stability, and enterprises should comply with customs import requirements. However, some enterprises have illegal operations, such as reentering unqualified products at other ports, or placing qualified products in containers to cover unqualified products to evade supervision. In this regard, the customs will be severely cracked down on in the way of anti-smuggling and increase penalties.

The above measures will significantly increase the time cost and testing cost of Vietnam's fruit exports, and for some small orchards and export enterprises, they may face double pressure on capital and technology, which will affect their export scale and market share. In addition, if the Chinese side finds the same batch of goods unqualified again, it will cancel the recognition of the test report issued by the laboratory. This makes Vietnam fruit export industry chain face reshuffle, the relevant packaging factories and laboratories need to improve their own management level and testing capabilities, otherwise it will lose the Chinese market share, the impact on the overall supply chain of Vietnam fruit exports.

For the port to strengthen the inspection, this will lead to a certain impact on the customs clearance efficiency of the port, and the phenomenon of cargo backlog occurs from time to time. From the perspective of market supply, in the short term, the supply of Vietnamese durian and jackfruit in the Chinese market may decrease, price volatility will increase, and consumers' purchasing choices will be limited; In the long term, if Vietnam cannot effectively address the problem of excessive heavy metals, its share of the Chinese fruit import market may be replaced by other Southeast Asian competitors. Even if the quality of products improves in the future, rebuilding consumer trust will be a long process, requiring significant investment in brand restoration and marketing.