The Department of Animal and Plant Quarantine of the General Administration of Customs of China issued a written notice on June 11, showing that 77 batches of Vietnamese durians exported to China recently were detected with excessive cadmium, and the unqualified goods monitored involved 33 packaging factories and 40 orchards.

In order to protect the health of Chinese consumers and minimize the impact on the durian trade, China has decided to suspend the import of durians from 15 packaging plants and 18 orchards from June 12, 2024, in addition to the companies that have already been suspended.

The Vietnamese side said that the excessive cadmium content was discovered after China stepped up supervision and inspection of imported goods from China. In response to this situation, China's General Administration of Customs asked the Vietnamese side to identify the reasons for the unqualified export of durian, urged the relevant packaging plants or orchards to take corrective measures, strengthen supervision and inspection, do a good job of source control, to avoid similar situations from happening again, and timely inform the Chinese side of the relevant situation.

It is worth noting that Vietnamese durians have received notifications from the Chinese side for violating product quality and safety on several occasions. Just three months ago, China's General Administration of Customs warned about 30 shipments of Vietnamese durians over cadmium levels. Vietnam's plant protection department responded in May that it had not found cadmium levels in any samples above the threshold set by China.

Now that the Chinese side has notified again, the price of durian in Vietnam has also been affected and has declined.

According to Vietnamese media statistics, there are 187 export codes for Vietnamese durians that have been warned of violations, of which 115 are planting area codes and 72 are packaging plant codes. As many as 35 growing areas and 29 packaging plants received multiple warnings, and 80 growing areas and 43 packaging plants received one warning.

Due to China's recent strengthening of the supervision of imported durians, the customs clearance efficiency of ports has been affected, and fruit trucks at several ports such as China-Vietnam Friendship Pass, Zhima and Xinqing have shown signs of congestion.