March 6, 2014

ASEAN to establish own shrimp standards

ASEAN shrimp producers and processors are working to build a common set of standards for shrimps, relevant to ASEAN nations' conditions and harmonised with other popular international requirements, vice chairman of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exports and Producers (VASEP) Nguyen Huu Dung said.

The set of ASEAN shrimp standards will be divided and applied for extensive shrimp and industrial shrimp, he added. Currently, ASEAN shrimp producers follow various standards set by importing countries.

ASEAN, which supplies 80% of global shrimp output, will see the shrimp standards enforced by 2015, when the ASEAN Economic Community is also formed, reports VASEP. The ASEAN bloc includes Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

On 26 February, a seminar to obtain comments from shrimp farmers and processors on the standards for ASEAN shrimp was held in Can Tho city by VASEP and the ASEAN-US Maximising Agricultural Revenue through Knowledge, Enterprise Development and Trade (ASEAN-US MARKET) project, funded by the US Agency for International Development.

At the seminar, Corey Peet, an expert from the ASEAN-US MARKET project, presented the goals, scope and the development of the draft for the ASEAN shrimp standards, strategies for accessing to buyers, support for farmers to follow the requirements.

Source: Vietnam Plus