Strict measures to ensure seafood safety for export
Drastic measures will be taken
from product production to product processing to ensure the quality,
hygiene and safety of seafood end-products for export .
According to
the Viet Nam National Fisheries Quality Assurance and Veterinary
Association (Nafiquaved) under the Ministry of Fisheries, in addition to
the decentralisation of hygiene and food safety management in seafood
production, origins of all batches of seafood must be reported in order
to raise businesses' responsibility for the quality of their products.
Fishermen will be
provided with concrete farming techniques as well as simple and
effective protective methods to ensure the supply of safe products for
seafood processing establishments.
The ministry has also
cooperated with relevant agencies to complete a system of legal
documents on seafood safety and aquatic product disease control in
accordance with the WTO commitments.
Particularly, the
application of technical criteria will be mandatory for all shrimp
farming establishments as of July 1, 2007; for fish sauce production
establishments as of January 1, 2008; for frozen, canned , instant and
dried seafood processors as of July 1, 2008; and fishing ships as of
January 1, 2009.
Nguyen Tu Cuong, head of
Nafiquaved, said that the inspection of the quality of export seafood
has been strictly conducted in processing factories over the recent past
and expanded to product producing areas.
The most successful was
the programme controlling the residue of toxic substances in seafood and
farmed aquatic products, bi-vale molluse, which met the demands of
European, American, Canadian and Japanese markets.
Many businesses have
invested in upgrading and renewing processing equipment, especially
equipment to check the quality of products, with the increased demand
for seafood safety and hygiene.
For the Government's
part, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has issued a dispatch requiring the
Fisheries Ministry, relevant ministries, sections and localities to
tighten control of the use of banned chemicals and antibiotics in
producing, processing and preserving aquatic products.
The fisheries sector has
also given priority to the food safety and hygiene programme in order to
obtain the target of an export value of 4-4.5 billion USD by 2010.
By the end of last year,
326 out of 484 large seafood production establishments met standards of
food safety. Of them, 209 establishments have been permitted to export
products to the EU market and more than 300 establishments to export
products to the Republic of Korea, China and Russia.
Viet Nam's seafood is
exported to 127 countries and territories with an export value estimated
at 3.3 billion USD in 2006./.(VNA)