September 24, 2012

 

 

As Japan has been stepping up inspections of Vietnamese shrimp imports over fears of ethoxyquin residues since last month, shrimp-exporting Vietnamese firms are in dire need of help from authorities.

 

Cuu Long Sea Products Company is among the local exporters facing tight controls on shrimp shipments to Japan since September 4 as Japanese authorities have detected higher-than-permitted ethoxyquin residues in the firm's shrimp products, according to the National Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Quality Assurance Department (Nafiqad).

 

Nguyen Van Bang, chairman of Cuu Long, said his firm has suspended exporting shrimp to the Japanese market.

 

For Cuu Long and many other shrimp exporters, Japan is one of their major markets with a stable price and good relationship. However, Japan's tighter control on shrimp imports is much like an import ban, so local exporters do not want to take risks.

 

"Those export shipments returned would be certainly sold at a much lower price. But in reality, there are almost no buyers," Bang said.

 

Meanwhile, controlling ethoxyquin inputs is no laughing matter as this is an antioxidant originating from animal feed, said Bang. "It's hard for enterprises to test all shrimp farms when buying shrimp from farmers," he added.

 

Ut Xi Aquatic Products Processing Corporation has also left the Japanese market since Japan started testing its all shipments in late July. The local firm is looking at relevant authorities for help, according to director Nguyen Tuan Anh.

 

With local exporters having a hard time doing business with Japan, the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) has passed this issue to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development as well as the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

A possible solution to this is the agriculture ministry would work with Japan's health ministry and find a substance to replace ethoxyquin. "We have no choice but to wait for assistance from authorities," Bang said.

 

According to VASEP, shrimp export to Japan last month amounted to over US$54 million, down 16.6% from the same month last year. The shrimp export value in this year's third quarter is estimated to reach US$690 million, dropping by 4% on-year and rising by 19% from the previous quarter.

 

The total shrimp export value to Japan in the January-September period amounted to US$1.7 billion.