Vietnamese warned on food safety
VIETNAMESE seafood companies selling to Japan need to study its food safety and hygiene regulations if they are to increase sales, a seminar in Ho Chi Minh City has heard.
Nguy n Hoài Nam, deputy general secretary of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers, told the large gathering that Japan was one of Vietnam’s three largest seafood export markets, worth some $590 million in the first half of the year.
‘A significant improvement in quality and appreciation of the Japanese yen have been key reasons for a big rise in Vietnamese seafood exports to the market,’ he said.
‘Japan has always had stringent quality and food safety and hygiene regulations, especially with antibiotics norms, and these pose a challenge for seafood exporters, including those from Vietnam.’
Lê Anh Ng c, deputy head of the seafood quality management office at the National Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Quality Assurance Department, said Japan, unlike the US, EU, China and South Korea, did not require exporting countries to furnish a list of eligible exporting companies. Instead, it directly inspects export consignments at the port of entry.
The seminar heard that imports likely to cause harm to health or products from the same country or manufacturer or processor found to have committed violations in the monitoring inspection were immediately subject to an inspection order, with all imported food consignments likely to come under scrutiny.
Management of the water environment and improvement in the social responsibility of businesses and communities in aquaculture breeding areas are very important for addressing this problem, he said.