January 18, 2007

Vietnam to strengthen supervision on seafood safety, hygiene

The Vietnam Ministry of Fisheries will, from early 2007, conduct close inspection of seafood safety and hygiene before exporting to regain prestige of Vietnamese products, according to a ministry official.

Deputy Minister Nguyen Thi Hong Minh said the ministry will set up a system to manage seafood quality throughout the breeding, collecting, processing and preserving phases.

From 2008, the ministry will ask enterprises to check material quality before processing, while providing local breeders with know-how to produce safe fish.

Minh released dispatch No 117 requesting seafood exporters to Russia to have certificates authenticated by Russian authorities indicating it has met is food hygiene requirements.

The certificates must follow the form provided by Russia's Federal Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance Service (VPSS) and must be processed by establishments recognised by Vietnam authorities as having met sanitation requirements.

The enterprises must follow strict procedures on packing and encoding inspected consignments of seafood, as required by the National Fisheries Quality and Veterinary Directorate (Nafiqaved).

Russia has emerged as a major potential consumer of Vietnamese tra and basa catfish.