Question: What are the new business and investment conditions in agriculture?
Answer:
Production of plant protection chemicals
Pursuant to Decree 123, laborers directly joining in the production of plant protection chemicals only need to be trained or re-trained on their specialized tasks and the knowledge in plant protection chemicals, without the need for certificates issued by state management agencies in charge of chemicals or plant protection and quarantine as prescribed in Decree No. 66/2016/ND-CP dated July 1, 2016 (“Decree 66”).
However, factories producing plant production chemicals must be situated in industrial parks as opposed to what was previously prescribed in Decree 66 allowing them to be built outside industrial parks.
Sale of plant protection chemicals
The conditions for the sale of plant protection chemicals have not been amended so much, with silviculture being replaced biology and agronomy as the academic disciplines of people who directly manage or sell plant protection chemicals.
Conditions for concentrated animal raising operations
As previously prescribed in Decree 66, while the swift attraction sound system used in concentrated animal raising operations only needs to be equal to or lower than 70 decibels A to be satisfactory, this issue is now prescribed by Decree 123 with regard to the attraction and breeding of swifts that the swift attraction sound system must not be higher than 70 decibels A and can only be used within the time-frame of 6AM9PM, and people are not allowed to use the swift attraction sound system from 9PM-6AM of the next day.
Preliminary treatment and processing of foods
Pursuant to Decree 123, manpower and a wastewater drainage system are no longer the conditions for operating the premises of animal slaughter and food preliminary treatment as previously prescribed in Decree 66. In addition, instead of prescribing the standards for the equipment and tools used for slaughtering, preliminarily treating and containing animals, poultry as in Decree 66, Decree 123 abolishes this condition, so we can understand that the use of equipment and tools will be decided by the providers of animal, poultry slaughtering service.
The conditions on the position of raw material stocks, finished-product stocks, preliminary treating, processing and packaging areas, sanitary areas or the conditions on lighting systems, air compressors used for treatment and separation of residues and odours are also abolished by this Decree 123. The detailed provisions on the equipment and tools used in preliminarily treating and processing foods are also removed, but this Decree maintains the condition that workers must be equipped with personal hygiene equipment, and equipment and tools must meet the national technical standards on safety and hygiene of packaging materials and tools.
Production of animal feed and aquatic products
Similar to the conditions abolished above, the changes with regard to the production of animal feed and aquatic products emphasize an enterprises' self-discipline in complying with environmental hygiene and safety measures. Accordingly, Decree 123 prescribes that the establishments producing or processing animal feed and aquatic products are not required to have production areas with separate walls or fences, environmental impact assessment reports or environmental protection plans in accordance with the environmental law as prescribed in Decree 39/2017/ND-CP dated April 4, 2017.
In addition, factories are not required to have dust collecting and waste treating equipment to avoid contaminating products and protect the environment. Furthermore, animal feed products are removed from the list of products of which advertisements must be verified by competent state agencies prior to publishing such advertisements as prescribed in Decree 181/2013/ND-CP dated November 14, 2013.
Decree 123 comes into force as from September 17, 2018./.
(Source:VGP)
