EU resumes Uruguay seafood imports

The National Directorate of Aquatic Resources (DINARA) has been informed that the European Union (EU) has resumed seafood products imports from Uruguay.

This announcement marks the end of restrictions imposed by the European bloc in 2008. In addition, the EU acknowledged DINARA as an equivalent entity for the certification of export products.

According to media reports, the European authority made these decisions after evaluating the results of inspections undertaken by EU technicians over 15 days at the industry, vessel and laboratory level in Uruguay.

The European team needed to verify if the requirements imposed in 2008 had been fulfilled, after the Uruguayan market was closed for want of guarantees as far as the innocuity of foods exported to Europe.

Aquatic Resources national director Daniel Montiel notes that in 2008, Uruguay closed with US$213 million, and approximately 35 percent of that amount was taken up by the European market.

Montiel expects the Uruguayan fishing sector to hover around US$200 million this year, which is an interesting indicator for an activity like fishing.

Complications in exporting seafood resources to the European market began in 2007, when EU inspectors stated that certain protocols established by DINARA were not being applied in plants and ships.

The European Commission (CE) suspended the authorisations of three Uruguayan plants to export fish to the EU market, upon detecting breakdowns in sanitary conditions and verifying that certain reagents used to analyse samples had expired.