EU warns to increase inspection of Vietnamese seafood products

The National Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Quality Management Department (Nafiqad), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has just issued a warning from the European Union (EU) about heavy metal contamination in exported seafood shipments. Nafiqad has received 11 reports of 11 seafood shipments from Vietnam exported to the EU being warned of heavy metal residues of mercury and cadmium exceeding the maximum allowable limit.

Seafood is a major export item of Vietnam.

The number of warnings has increased 2.2 times compared to the whole year of 2015. The number of seafood shipments warned of heavy metals has increased sharply since the end of May.

To avoid continued EU warnings on heavy metal indicators, which negatively affect the image of Vietnamese seafood, Nafiqad requires seafood processing enterprises exporting to the EU to have a quality management program, establish and implement measures to strengthen heavy metal hazard control, paying special attention to controlling the origin of seafood raw materials imported to the factory for processing.

Regional agricultural, forestry and fishery quality centers must strictly implement the inspection and certification of exported seafood shipments. In particular, the Department emphasizes the inspection, sampling and verification of heavy metal indicators for shipments containing seafood ingredients that are farmed, exploited and caught in the sea areas of the Central provinces.

According to statistics from the General Department of Customs, seafood exports in the first 8 months of 2016 reached over 4.36 billion USD, up 6.2% over the same period. The US is the largest seafood import market of Vietnam with a turnover of 906 million USD, up 14.3% over the same period last year.

Coming in second is the Japanese market with a turnover of 650 million USD, a slight increase of 0.5%. Compared to the growth rate of the seafood industry in previous years, this year the growth rate has slowed down.

Seafood is a major export item of Vietnam.

According to VnEconomy