The number of Vietnamese seafood batches exported to foreign countries found with metal residues has tended to sharply rise, according to an official from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).
In a meeting co-organised by the MARD and the People's Committee of Khanh Hoa Province in Nha Trang City on Thursday, Ngo Hong Phong, deputy head of MARD’s Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Quality Assurance Department, said up to 50 seafood shipments faced food safety warnings from abroad. Among those, 35 shipments were issued warnings from the EU, double 2016 and six times against 2015.
Vietnamese seafood shipments found with metal residues on the rise
Most of the batches were found to have contained metals such as mercury and cadmium over the maximum permissible limits. Meanwhile, the rest failed due to incorrect labelling.
On October 23 last year, the European Commission issued a yellow card warning to Vietnam after the country failed to demonstrate sufficient progress in the fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing worldwide.
Nguyen Hoang Nam, deputy general secretary of Vietnam Association for Seafood Exporters and Producers (Vasep), the yellow card has affected Vietnam’s seafood exports to EU markets. If a red card is issued, Vietnam will face a trade ban on fishery products to the EU.
Meanwhile, Vietnam’s seafood exports to the US have become more difficult as the US has put the Seafood Import Monitoring Programme into operation since January 1 this year.
The programme aims to prevent illegal, unreported, and unregulated catches and mislabelled seafood from entering the US, resulting in much stricter controls on the origins of seafood exports to the country.
