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Vietnam unaffected by Russia’s seafood rules
Vietnam will not face any difficulties from new regulations for exporting seafood to Russia next year. However, other countries can be affected.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said that under Russia’s new rules, effective from January 1, foreign companies and fishing ships must get a certificate for exports.
The VPSS, Russia’s Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance, will also become the sole office granting licences.
The new rules will not create problems for Vietnamese seafood exporters because since 2006, the VPSS has controlled the quality of Vietnamese seafood exports to Russia, according to Luong Le Phuong, deputy minister of agriculture and rural development.
Russia was a potential growth market for Vietnamese seafood but it was also a market with strict regulations on controlling food safety, he said.
Russia, now the second biggest export market for Vietnam, holds 15 percent of Vietnam’s seafood exports, according to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Processors (VASEP).
In the first 10 months of this year, Vietnam exported seafood worth US$195 million to Russia. So far, the VPSS has licensed 38 Vietnamese exporters.
Russia imported 1.2 million tonnes of seafood every year from 30 countries, including 15 percent from the European Union, 40 percent from China and 30 percent from Norway, said VASEP.
The EU, China and Japan will not suffer from the new regulations, but 26 countries must change their seafood export activities to comply with the new regulations.
The new regulations will temporarily reduce seafood exports to Russia by half in 2009 as exporters adjust to the new rules.
VOV/VNS
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