EU delegation to investigate Vietnamese seafood
country's seafood sanitary conditions, after excessively high
levels of antibiotics were discovered in a batch of seafood
exports, Tom Armitage reports.
The four-member delegation, part of the EU's Health and Consumer Protection Directorate General, will inspect seafood breeding areas, processing units and several laboratories of provincial fisheries departments and will be accompanied throughout their eleven-day investigation by Vietnam's National Fisheries Quality Assurance and Nafiquaved, the Vietnamese Veterinary Directorate.
The Vietnamese Ministry of Fisheries has previously lambasted the seafood industry for failing to establish adequate regulatory controls to prevent the proliferation of antibiotics and chemicals used in seafood - something that has also attracted criticism from the EU, Canada and the US - all of which have strict legislation governing these areas.
Currently there are around 330 seafood processing facilities in Vietnam, 100 of which are approved to export to the EU - although this figure is expected to rise as distribution networks improve.
Ta Quang Ngoc, Vietnam's Fisheries Minister, recently ordered fisheries departments of every province to heighten control over blacklisted antibiotics and chemicals used in seafood production and has since threatened to bar producers that have cargoes containing high antibiotic levels from selling their products to the EU.
According to FAO statistics, Vietnamese seafood exports notched up a record US$2.2 billion in 2003 and sales during the previous year increased by around 21 per cent.
The EU accounted for 29 per cent of Vietnam's total shrimp and fish exports in 2003 - the country's third largest export destination - while the Japanese and US markets each accounted for larger respective shares of 36.7 and 48.4 per cent.
In an attempt to up shrimp exports to the EU (currently the region remains a relatively small export market for Vietnam, accounting for just 3.6 per cent of sales in 2003), the Vietnamese Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) has arranged for Vietnamese companies to participate in the major European exhibitions such as the European Seafood Exposition (ESE) in Brussels and SIAL in Paris.
Furthermore, VASEP has been assisting exporters in developing markets in several countries, including the UK, Netherlands and Italy, and is currently looking at the possibility of setting up representative marketing hubs in a number of overseas markets.
Conversely, Vietnam's Ministry of Trade has said that seafood exports to Japan alone will notch up US$750 million this year, increasing to US$1 billion by 2010.
But, says the Ministry, in order to achieve its target, Vietnam's seafood industry must first bolster sales of other seafood products, for instance, fresh shrimp, dried squid, cuttlefish, tuna and other processed products.
