The breeding, fishing and transporting of aquaculture products will be more closely monitored from now on, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Luong Le Phuong said in a meeting last week with seafood processors and producers.
Phuong said the ministry would ask local authorities and quality control management to improve their inspections of breeding areas, ships, and ports to ensure the hygiene and quality of fish before it enters factories for processing.
The ministry will also implement a system so that the origin of specific seafood products can be traced, said Phuong who added that the practice was a requirement of the European Commission.
The commission sent its own officials to investigate fish breeding areas, purchasing agents, factories and ports in southern Vietnamese provinces last month.
Nguyen Dinh Thu, head of the ministry’s Seafood Management Department, said that during the inspections, the European officials had discovered breaches of safety and hygiene in the early stages of seafood production.
According to the findings released last week, only half of all fishing ports and a quarter of the ships inspected met requirements set by the commission.
Viet Nam to Take a Closer Inspection of Seafood
VIET NAM - Viet Nam will increase its supervision of early-stage seafood production to assure safety and quality before the products reach processing factories, an agricultural official has said.
