November 13, 2012

China has banned shrimp imports from Vietnam due to concerns of viral contamination and failure to meet China's certification and information requestsa.

Vietnam's quality certification of exported shrimp products does not meet China's requirements, and Vietnam failed to provide Chinese authorities with a list of facilities involving in shrimp cultivation and processing.

Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has not received any official document regarding the ban from China other than complaint reports by Vietnamese firms.

The ministry has sent a team to China to work on the issue.

Shrimp raisers are not just worried about the ban as a move from Chinese authorities to assist their farmers, but also about the possible threat of Vietnamese seafood products being "tampered" and losing credibility in the international market.

In addition, it is often the case that many Chinese merchants bought unprocessed raw shrimp from Vietnam and then injected agar, a kind of laxative, into the purchased products to boost the shrimp volume, affecting the quality of Vietnam's products.

China was the fourth largest importer of Vietnamese shrimp, after Japan, the US and the EU, in the year to October. 15 with a value of US$191.55 million, accounting for 11.11% of total revenues of Vietnam from shrimp exports during the period.