September 30, 2014
Food safety issues imperil Vietnam''s rapidly rising seafood exports
Food safety problemsthreaten to derail Vietnam''s seafood exports, which have been rising rapidly since the start of the year.
A Japanese company recently cancelled Vietnamese imports after it found rat poison and a substance suspected to be human excrement in frozen fish coming from Vietnam.
In September, Brazil also banned pangasiusor catfish importsfrom Vietnam due to sanitary reasons and lack of phytosanitary controls.
Seafood exports from Vietnam have been rising rapidly during the last few months, with exports to South Korea growing 51.33% between January and July compared to the same period last year.
Exports to China for the same period jumped 35.28%, according to data from Vietnam''s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), while exports to Japan posted a 7.32% increase.
For the first seven months, the US remained the largest market for Vietnamese seafood, with an increase of 41.3% year-on in export revenue.
All in all, Vietnam''s seafood exports in the first seven months of 2014 rocketed 24.5%. MARD data showed that from January to July, Vietnam''s seafood exports had already breached US$4.2 billion.
In late July, however,Japanfound several boxes of frozen fish sent by Rich Beauty Company in the Vietnamese province of Thai Binh to be contaminated with rat poison andhuman waste.
After the incident, Japannotified MARD of its decision to blacklist Rich Beauty Company.
In Brazil, meanwhile,fish and aquaculture authorities have disclosed that issuance of import permits for pangasius or catfishcoming from Vietnam has been suspended since September 22.
Officials, however, clarified that existing import licenses remain valid until their expiration dates.
In March 2013, Brazil''s fisheries and aquaculture ministriesasked Vietnam to offer detailed information on the official veterinary system (SVO) and health guarantees offered for the production of fish exported to Brazil.
Vietnam, the sources said, failed to comply with the requirements.