On May 15, Deputy Prime Minister Hồ Quốc Dũng chaired an interagency meeting on growing-area code management and asked the Ministry of Public Security (Bộ Công an) to investigate and strictly handle the brokering, buying, selling, and leasing of growing-area codes (mã số vùng trồng), along with the falsification of testing results for agricultural exports including durian (Tuổi Trẻ, May 15, 2026).

The referral is not the first criminal action. On November 3, 2025, the Ministry of Public Security's economic crime investigation department (C03) indicted 17 individuals at the Retaq testing center, NhoNho Technology, and Thủy Fruit Company on charges including bribery, accounting violations, and abuse of influence -- all tied to the trading of growing-area codes and falsified testing certificates (Bộ Công an, November 3, 2025). The May 15 referral signals that Hanoi sees that case as the start of a sector-wide enforcement push, not the end of it.

Since 2025, China has issued non-compliance warnings on 403 Vietnamese growing-area codes and 240 packing facility codes. Deputy PM Hồ Quốc Dũng acknowledged at the meeting that many exported products may not actually come from the growing areas whose codes they carry.

On June 1, China's General Administration of Customs Decree 280 replaces Decree 248, swapping the prior fixed 18-category food list for a dynamic GACC-managed list, extending registration to overseas storage facilities, and tightening food safety and traceability documentation for imported food (USDA Foreign Agricultural Service). On July 1, Vietnam transitions from a six-month durian-origin pilot (January 1 to June 30) to a nationwide farm-to-table traceability system, with QR codes issued by the Ministry of Public Security used for origin authentication (Vietnam News, December 2025).

Between those two dates sits the May 15 referral. The Ministry of Public Security already issues the QR codes consumers scan to verify a durian's origin. As of May 15, the same ministry will also investigate the upstream fraud -- the brokers trading the growing-area codes the QR system certifies. Certification and enforcement now sit under the same ministry.

For Chinese and other Asian buyers sourcing Vietnamese durian, jackfruit, dragon fruit, and pomelos, the operational question between now and July is which growing-area codes survive the audit and which are flagged. For EU buyers and importers running parallel traceability protocols on Vietnamese commodities -- coffee, rubber, and timber under EUDR-adjacent rules; dragon fruit and other fruit under tightening MRL regimes -- the durian system is the prototype Vietnam will likely extend across the export portfolio. For Vietnamese exporters operating with legitimate codes, the immediate posture is a hardened paper trail tying every shipment to its registered growing area, with testing results from facilities that can withstand scrutiny. For producers in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines competing in the same China-bound durian and tropical-fruit corridor, Vietnam's credibility wobble between now and Q3 is a short-term opening; whether it stays open depends on which prosecutions land.

The Deputy PM separately asked the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment to simplify code-issuance procedures, which suggests a two-track cleanup: prosecute the bad actors, and lower the friction for the legitimate ones. The arithmetic of which producers fall on which side of that line will reshape who is actually competitive in the China corridor by Q3 -- and tell the EU what to expect when it asks Vietnam for the same on coffee, rubber, and timber.

Last week, Issue #1 asked whether Hanoi would respond with policy or a press conference. With 17 already indicted since November, the May 15 referral is asking for more. Whether the prosecutions broaden before July 1 -- to more testing centers, more brokers, more growers -- or stop at the names already on the docket is the answer.

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