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Checks scrapped on seafood exports to North America
HA NOI — The Ministry of Fisheries said it would remove compulsory inspections of seafood exports to America and Canada, according to a statement signed by Deputy Minister Nguyen Thi Hong Minh on Tuesday.
The ministry said it would only carry out inspections on batches of seafood if required to do so by interested parties or to meet bilateral trade agreements.
According to the statement, basa and tra catfish, shrimp and crab will now be exempt from inspections.
According to the director of the Ministry’s National Fisheries Quality and Veterinary Directorate (Nafiqaved), Nguyen Tu Cuong, last year only 0.43 per cent of nearly 579,000 tonnes of seafood exports - 72 per cent of the country’s total seafood exports - was contaminated with antibiotics.
Last July, Nafiqaved signed an agreement with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to inspect veterinary drug residues in seafood exported to Canada. Nafiqaved said that following inspections last year, seafood contaminated with banned chemicals had dropped by up to 80 per cent on the previous year. The authority also found that microbial contamination had fallen by 50 per cent on 2005 levels.
During inspections of seafood to be exported to US and Canadian markets last year, the fisheries ministry said only one batch due to be exported to the US was found to be contaminated with chemicals and antibiotics - compared to 71 cases the previous year.
Fisheries officials have been carrying out additional inspections of seafood exports to America and Canada since 2005.
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