Vietnamese seafood exports face Spanish barriers

Spanish authorities have refused to clear a Vietnamese consignment of seafood for import stating mistakes in quarantine certification.

The National Agro-forestry and Fisheries Quality Assurance Department (NFIQAD) deputy director Nguyen Nhu Tiep said that 20 consignments of seafood exports, mostly tra fish, have been refused entry to Spain since the beginning of July 2009.

''The Spanish agency cited the mistakes in quarantine certification and refused to clear the exports. However, the change in the form of the quarantine certification, is now yellow instead of blue, has been told to NIFQAD already,'' Tiep said.

According to the Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) Luong Le Phuong, this is one of the barriers to cause difficulties to Vietnam's seafood exports to Spain.

Earlier this year, Spanish mass media launched a media campaign, saying that Vietnam's tra fish cannot meet the requirements of the EU market.

According to MARD, among the 26 EU markets that import Vietnam's seafood, Spain is the biggest importer. In the first 11 months of the year, Spain imported 54,532 tonnes of seafood.

Phuong said that import markets now tend to apply stricter measures to protect local production, installing technical and trade barriers, which has put big difficulties for Vietnam's exports.