June 30, 2006

Catfish standards formulated for Vietnam's exporters

The US-based Aquaculture Certification Council and EUREPGAP, a Swiss organisation that certifies seafood, have issued international standards applicable to Vietnam's tra and basa catfish.

EUREPGAP, founded by retailers in the Euro-Retailer Produce Working Group (Eurep), develops standards for global certifications of good aquaculture practice (GAP).

The standards, to be applied in 2007, would not be too complicated, said Philippe Serene, general director of Aqua Service Vietnam, a consultant for EUREPGAP.

However, applying these standards to the scattered Vietnamese aquacultural industry would take time. Aqua Service Vietnam formulated an outline two years ago of the quality standards for Vietnam's tra and basa catfish based on EUREPGAP's standards.

A five-year plan should be devised for implementing the standards in Vietnam, Serene said.

EUREPGAP recently held two conferences in Vietnam on the new standards. International retailers, including Wal-Mart and Darden, trust in Aquaculture Certification Council (ACC) standards for shrimp products and require seafood suppliers to have such certification.

ACC is a US non-governmental organisation certifiying environmental and food safety standards at aquaculture facilities internationally.