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Catfish quality tests tightened to export hygiene standards
Viet Nam's tra and basa catfish must be certified for hygiene and food safety in order to be able to be exported, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development's new circular that has been effective since Monday.
The two certificates will be issued by testing centres that are under the National Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Quality Assurance Department (NAFIQAD), the circular noted.
"Some Vietnamese seafood companies had to return shipments from overseas markets because they failed to meet hygiene and food safety standards," said Deputy Head of Nafiquad, Nguyen Nhu Tiep.
"This move is to ensure the prestige of tra and basa, which is one of Viet Nam's key export items, in the world market rather than laying barriers for enterprises," Tiep noted.
Meanwhile, some other seafood processors were attempting to get international certificates with the hope that it would help their products penetrate into strict, global distribution channels.
The NTACO Joint Stock Company this month received a Global Good Agricultural Practice (Global GAP) certificate for its 30-ha tra fish farm in southern An Giang Province. This is the first tra fish farm in Viet Nam to have a Global GAP certificate, which is given only to agriculture or aqua culture producers who have high production standards.
"With this certificate, the value of NTACO's products are expected to increase by more than 15 per cent and the company will have more opportunities to penetrate into strictly controlled markets," said NTACO Chairman Nguyen Tuan Anh.
Minh Phu Seafood Corp. was also awarded the Global Gap certificate, which made it the first Vietnamese seafood producer to receive the certification.
Bui Khuong Thoi, Chief representatives from Binca Seafoods Viet Nam, a seafood distributor in Europe, emphasised that stricter seafood standards are important to European customers because they wanted to know about the product's origin.
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