In 2014, Vietnamese government issued the Decree No.36/2014/NÐ-CP on farming, processing and export of pangasius products. Accordingly, by December 31st, 2015, commercial fish farms are required to apply and certified against VietGAP Standard or other international standards in compliance with Vietnamese law. Farms are required to meet all regulations and technical standards on aquaculture to receive certification. They are also provided identification codes by local aquaculture-managing agencies. The Decree asks also farmers to use fingerlings, feed, vet drugs, biological products, micro-organisms and chemical products permitted by Vietnamese law. Detailed regulations on quality and food safety of processed pangasius products require raw pangasius for processing to be grown in farms satisfying the regulated requirements. Processed pangasius must be complied with regulations on seafood quality and food safety set by Vietnam and other importing markets.
Source: Vietnam GSOIn April, 2015, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has allowed pilot program on granting electronic certificates for seafood exports to the European Union (EU) on Trade Control and Expert System (TRACES). It is a trans-European web-based network for veterinary health that notifies, certifies and monitors imports, exports and trade in animals and animal products around the world. The National Agro-Forestry-Fisheres Quality Assurance Department (Nafiqad) under MARD, recommends that electronic certification shall be applied to all processed seafood exported to the EU.
On 8 October, 2015, MARD issued Circular No.33/2015/TT-BNN on regulations on sanitary surveillance and food safety in the harvesting process of bivalve molluscs. Circular No. 33/2015/TT-BNN will come on effect from the date of 10th December, 2015. Accordingly, in case the test results of biological toxins in bivalve molluscs exceed permissible limits, the competent agency have competence to o issue alert notification form as in the Annex XII of this Circular, which requires the following remedial measures: (i) Do not allow harvesting bivalve molluscs to export to the EU; (ii) To takes sample of higher monitoring toxic algae and biological toxins with frequency from 2-3 days / times at the sample point of sample species have discovered bivalve molluscs with biological toxin; (iii) Only allow bivalve molluscs processing factories to sell products if testing results satisfy regulations on biological toxins. Situation of these areas will be updated and farmers will be allowed to harvest only when testing result shows that toxic algae and biological toxins are within permissible limits after two consecutive enhanced surveillance.
These efforts resulted from higher requirements on food safety from importing countries, especially difficult markets including the United States, Japan, South Korea. These three markets play big shares in total seafood export of Vietnam.
How to meet safety and hygiene standard has been also one prioritized of the industry. But the problem is that many importing countries apply a common good agriculture practice (GlobalGAP) standard on imported products, while Vietnamese seafood still produces at the VietGap standard. Therefore, businesses are encouraged to change their production and business habits to supply the market with better quality products and increase their added value. Exporters should ensure a series of strict requirements on materials, chemical compositions and labels from the market.
