KUALA LUMPUR: The government won’t allow any more red chillies to be imported from Vietnam until the end of this year, says Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry Sim Tze Tzin.
He said this was because samples of red chillies from Vietnam have been found to contain maximum residue limits (MRL) that exceeded the permitted levels.
“The ministry has sent a notification to the Vietnamese authorities to take the appropriate action and report the preventive measures that are taken, which would allow the ban on imports to be lifted.
“The ministry also set the conditions for sanitation and phytosanitation for the import of fresh chillies from Vietnam such as requiring certification for good agricultural practices and encouraging the planting and production of local chillies which are free of pesticides and of good quality to meet domestic demand,” he said during the Oral Question Session at the Senate here today.
Sim was replying to a question from Senator Datuk Seri Khairudin Samad who wanted to know what the government was doing to tackle the issue of contaminated imported chillies sold in local markets that did not comply with the Food Act 1983 and the Food Regulations 1985 due to pesticide residues last year.
He said the ministry, through the Malaysian Inspection and Quarantine Service Department (Maqis), was constantly monitoring the imports of agricultural products, especially from Vietnam.
Replying to a supplementary question from Senator Mohd Suhaimi Abdullah who had asked about the authenticity of a viral video clip which showed pesticides being added to durians to make them look fresh, Sim said it was an old video and the incident did not take place in Malaysia. - Bernama