Recently, according to Thai media reports, the Thai Ministry of Agriculture has recently taken a series of strict and comprehensive regulatory measures against the use of illegal chemical substances found in durian exported to China.

Thailand's Minister of Agriculture Narumon Pinyosinwat urgently promoted the implementation of the policy, ordered the temporary suspension of the licenses of relevant enterprises, and strengthened the supervision of the durian packaging process has become the focus of work, and strive to eliminate safety hazards from the source. In Chumphong Province, unannounced inspections by the Phaya Nagarat task force found that six factories were found to be using chemicals not permitted in the durian packaging process, which were properly registered as fungicides and plant disease control substances under the Dangerous Substances Act 1992, but were used in the wrong circumstances. More seriously, the inspectors also found the illegal use of unregistered food coloring mixed with water to soak durians, which is not only a serious violation of the GMP standard requirements and the announcement of the Ministry of Agriculture, but also contrary to the import conditions of trading partners.

In the face of these problems, the Thai Ministry of Agriculture responded quickly and issued a 30-day rectification notice to the five offending enterprises, requiring the enterprises to immediately correct the wrong behavior and produce in strict accordance with standards and norms. And for another enterprise that seriously violates the relevant provisions of the Thailand-China agreement, its DoA registration certificate will be revoked.

As an important importer of Thai durian, China is highly concerned about the quality and safety of Thai durian. Thailand's agricultural Advisory Office in Beijing received a notification from the Chinese Customs, pointing out that Thai fresh fruits in the agricultural drug test continued to exceed the standard, the Chinese Customs has ordered the immediate suspension of related packaged agricultural exports. This notification sounded the alarm for the durian industry in Thailand, and also made the Thai government deeply realize the seriousness of the problem.

In order to cope with this serious situation, the Thai Ministry of Agriculture has actively taken action to strengthen collaboration with multiple agencies. Discussions with agencies such as the Agricultural Standards Office and the Plant Product Factory Certification Body (CB) registered with the Ministry of Agricultural Extension are aimed at comprehensively strengthening supervision, inspection, traceability, quarantine and pest control throughout the production chain. The Thai Ministry of Agriculture has arranged more units to conduct random inspections and monitoring of the readiness of enterprises exporting vegetables and fruits, and enforce export standards for agricultural products such as durians to prepare for further assessment by Chinese customs.

This kind of irregular inspection and monitoring can find the problems existing in the enterprise in time to ensure that the enterprise always maintains a high standard of production. If it is found that the enterprise does not meet the certification standards, it will be reported to the ACT and the certification body (CB), and the relevant agency will deal with the enterprise, and in serious cases, it may be disqualified and lose the export opportunity.

Thailand's agriculture minister's serious attitude toward the incident shows that the Thai government will not take the supervision of durian production areas lightly. He not only asked enterprises to strictly abide by relevant regulations and standards, but also prepared to negotiate with the General Administration of Customs to seek to support the supervision of Thai fruit exports to China.