Tra fish processed at An My Fish Joint Stock Company in An Giang province's Thoai Son district (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) under the UnitedStates Department of Agriculture has officially recognised Vietnam’s PangasiusFood Safety Control System after more than three years of negotiations.
The recognition was important for the development of the pangasiusindustry, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) Phung DucTien told Vietnam News on November 4.
He said it proved Vietnamhad a system in place that met US market requirements, which were amongthe strictest in the world.
In order to meet US regulations, MARD said it had been working closelywith stakeholders in Vietnam for three years to develop a system that metthe US Farm Bill 2014.
“It will help local pangasius firms to access and expand their exportmarkets, not only in the US but also other regions,” said Nguyen Nhu Tiep,director of Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Quality Assurance Department from MARD,adding that it would also encourage more enterprises to export pangasius to theUS along with the current 13 exporters.
Tien said the recognition would make US importers eager to buy more fishfrom Vietnam, adding export value in the last two months of 2019 andcontributing to the growth of the pangasius industry.
According to MARD’s statistics, Vietnam had yearly production of 1.3million tonnes of pangasius, India had 650,000 tonnes, Bangladeshhad 450,000 tonnes, Indonesia had 110,000 tonnes and Chinahad 10,000 tonnes.
Production in other markets was lower than in Vietnam, but theycould increase production capacity when they joined the export market.With technology added to production, they could be fierce competitorsfor Vietnam, said Minister Nguyen Xuan Cuong.
Cuong said with a farming area of 5,000 ha, the pangasius industrycould earn 1.8 billion USD from exports.
“There is a lot of potential and room for development,” he said.
The minister said the recognition would contribute to a shiftin small-scale farming to large-scale production.
Also on November 4, MARD announced the US Department of Commercehad lowered anti-dumping duties on frozen pangasius filletsfrom Vietnam in the 15th period of review (POR15).
Accordingly, Vinh Hoan Company, Bien Dong Company, NTSF Seafoods JSCand Can Tho Import Export Seafood JSC (CASEAMEX) will now be able to exporttax-free, while a “Vietnam-wide entity” anti-dumping rate of 2.39 USD perkilogramme was applied to all other Vietnamese exporters.Vietnamese fish has been subject to US anti-dumpingduties since 2003.
Last year, Vietnam exported 550 million USD worth of pangasius to the US, thecountry’s second largest market./.
VNA
