The project aims to identify the causes of pesticide residues before and after harvest due to the application of pesticides by pepper growers at various stages, from growing, processing, packaging, storage until consumption; develop solutions to prevent and control pesticide residues, thus improve the quality of BR-VT pepper products to meet European standards on agrochemical residue levels.

In BR-VT, pepper is a traditional plant with total intensive growing areas of ​​about 8,000 hectares located in Chau Duc district, Xuyen Moc district, Tan Thanh district and Ba Ria city. Since 2006, in BR-VT province, in spite of being negatively impacted by plant diseases and market price fluctuations, the average annual output of pepper is about 10,000 tons provided for export and domestic consumption and partly contributed to the 17% growth rate of agricultural sector in the province. In the EU, with about 47% of pepper imported from Vietnam, the quality of Vietnam pepper has been recognized. It is also an enormous competitive advantage for Vietnam pepper products. However, the EU pays great attention to product quality, regularly tests and updates requirements on human pathogen and agrochemical residue levels. The maximum residue level has always been updated and reduced towards zero. It poses the biggest and most difficult technical barrier for Vietnam pepper products providing the current disease situation of pepper in BR-VT in particular and in Vietnam in general.

The Advisory Council assessed the project as meeting the requirements and agreed to implement the project after supplementing and completing some contents as suggested by the Council.