Made in Vietnam: Stricter origin labelling regulations for food products to be finalised in 2025
Vietnam has been discussing the implementation of origin labelling rules for locally-produced products including agri-food items since 2018.
Back in 2019, a draft circular on ‘Made in Vietnam’ rules was published and circulated widely in local media, but this was not formally implemented and was more or less forgotten until the issue was raised in the National Assembly again last year.
In response, the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) recently released a new proposal document to draft a decree to govern under what circumstances locally produced products will be able to display ‘Made in Vietnam’ and relevant labels.
“The ‘Made in Vietnam’ decree is crucial as part of the government’s policies to effectively implement international economic integration and maintain both political and social stability in the context of Vietnam’s [increasing] participation in new-generation free trade agreements,” MOIT Minister Nguyễn Hồng Diên said via a formal statement.
“It is also important to protect consumer rights as well as strengthen our management of the prevention of origin fraud and illegal product shipments [to prevent reputational damage via] counterfeit, fake and poor-quality products being labelled as Made in Vietnam.
“The lack of regulations on how to utilise these origin labels has been a source of confusion for many organisations and individuals in industries ranging from electronics to food production, particularly when products that only undergo simple processing and manufacturing steps locally are given the label [despite not using local ingredients].”
The agri-food industry is of particular concern for the ministry given the food safety and health implications associated with counterfeits or fraud in this sector, leading MOIT to propose that this industry be given extra focus and classified separately.
“We will be differentiating Vietnamese products into two main commodity groups - Agricultural goods, which will mainly comprise of food and beverage products; and Industrial goods which are all other non-agricultural products,” he added.
“Criteria for the country of origin information labelling for both of these commodity groups will be classified accordingly, but will always have the information displayed in English or French according to the country in which the products are being circulated.
“This criteria will assist businesses as well as management agencies to identify products actually made in Vietnam, and provide a basis to guide not only the product labelling but also packaging, advertising, brand establishment and so on in order to protect the reputation and brands of local products.”
Much stricter
The final decree will also greatly increase the stringency by which products are allowed to display the ‘Made in Vietnam’ label.
“Goods will only be considered to be produced in Vietnam [and allowed to display the label] when they meet one of the following criteria: It is of pure Vietnamese origin; It is
produced in Vietnam from all raw materials of Vietnamese origin; It undergoes a final processing stage in Vietnam that fundamentally changes its nature, and this final stage will also have to adhere to strict criteria,” the document added.
“This proposal will be submitted to the Prime Minister in November 2024, the draft decree will be finalised in June to July 2025 then submitted to the Ministry of Justice in August 2025, comments will be taken in September 2025 and then submitted for promulgation in October 2025.”
