A delegation from the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, led by Deputy Minister Nguyen Hoang Hiep, has recently conducted a field inspection as well as held a working session with Dak Lak PPC to address difficulties facing durian exports during the 2026 peak harvest season coupled with implement solutions to meet the European Union’s Deforestation Reduction Regulation (EUDR).

According to the report, Dak Lak, widely recognised as the “durian capital”, has more than 41,000 hectares under cultivation, alongside an estimated production of approximately 500,000 tons in 2026. So far, the province has been granted 280 planting area codes (7,500 hectares) together with 42 packaging facility codes; simultaneously, 165 planting areas (4,915 hectares) and 66 packaging facilities are awaiting approval from the General Administration of Customs of China (GACC).

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Environment, comrade Nguyen Hoang Hiep delivering his remarks.

However, the locality continues facing multiple obstacles, such as the absence of a GACC-designated testing laboratory, causing to increase testing costs coupled with processing time; the regulation on a minimum area of 10 hectares/growing zone as stipulated in Decree No. 38/2026/ND-CP remains difficult to apply in the Central Highlands due to fragmented production and the prevalence of inter-cropping durian with coffee.

Regarding meeting EUDR regulations, although the province has collected land boundary data for 86,339 hectares of coffee-growing households, large-scale implementation has still encountered obstacles because nearly 90% of the area is individual, small-scale production, the database is not synchronized, while the legal land records in the growing areas remains complex.

During the meeting, PPC Vice Chairman, comrade Nguyen Thien Van proposed launching a 15-30 day intensive campaign, in coordination with agencies under the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, to synchronize land databases, guide farmers in standardizing cultivation processes, as well as establish planting area codes. Looking further ahead, the province requested the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment to support developing linkage chain models, diversify export markets, along with reduce dependence on a single market.

PPC Vice Chairman, comrade Nguyen Thien Van discussing issues regarding the durian production situation in Dak Lak province.

In his directive, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Environment, comrade Nguyen Hoang Hiep emphasized the need for changes together with adjustments to regulations to comprehensively resolve agricultural products, ensuring that all exported products are transparent, traceable, combined with undergo safe quarantine procedures.

To promptly address obstacles affecting the 2026 crop, the Prime Minister has assigned the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment to amend Decree No. 38/2026/ND-CP in a flexible manner, removing inadequacies related to minimum planting area combined with specific inter-cropping regulations in the Central Highlands.

Deputy Minister, comrade Nguyen Hoang Hiep requested that the issuance of novel planting area alongside packaging facility codes must be directly granted to producers or legal land users; concurrently, streamline procedures, strongly shift from “pre-inspection” to “post-inspection”, promote digitization together with data transparency. The locality needs to quickly apply the traceability model to the coffee industry to meet EUDR regulations; as well as operate the National Agricultural Product Traceability System and research to construct an internationally standardized testing laboratory in the province to reduce logistics costs for businesses.

Translated by TRINH THUY