Enterprises must control the origin of fisheries raw material
(11/18/2019 12:00:00 AM)
The
Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said that according to the notice
of the European Commission (EC), the inspection team of the European General
Department of Marine and Fisheries (DG-MARE) will come to work in Vietnam from
4 - 12 November 2019 to assess the remediation of recommendations in the
implementation of regulations related to illegal, unreported, and unregulated
(IUU) fishing.
The
results of this inspection are important for seafood exports to the EU. In
order to ensure the preparation of the work with the DG-MARE inspection team to
achieve good results, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
requires seafood processing enterprises originating from capture fisheries to
actively focus on some of the following issues:
1.
Update all legal documents on IUU (Fisheries Law, Decree 26/2019 / ND-CP dated
March 8, 2019 of the Government detailing a number of articles and measures for
the implementation of Fisheries Law, Decree No. 42/2019 / ND-CP dated May 16,
2019 of the Government stipulating sanctions against administrative violations
in the field of fisheries, Circular No. 21/2018 / TT-BNNPTNT dated November 15th,
2018 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development stipulating the
recording, submission of reports, logbooks; announcement of designated fishing
ports to certify the origin of fisheries products; list of illegal fishing
vessels; tracing raw materials, certifying the origin of aquatic products ... and
seriously implement instructions of functional units under the Ministry
(Directorate of Fisheries, Department of Agro-forestry-Fisheries Quality
Assurance) about the Executive IUU
Regulation and validation / certification of IUU recently
2.
Urgently review internal regulations, management / supervision measures for domestic
and imported raw materials to ensure traceability before, during and after
exporting products to the EU and to meet Regulations on IUU, specifically:
-
Internal control procedures aiming at separating different batches of raw
materials in the process of purchasing, preserving and putting them into
processing; strictly control the use of imported raw material for export
processing.
-
Storing in a full and easy manner to ensure traceability of the origin of capturing
raw materials for processing in accordance with IUU regulations of EU and
Vietnam at enterprises (digital tracking file/ performance documents, including
monitoring record of materials at port, records of certification of
domestically captured raw materials; records of imported raw materials ...).
To
ensure enterprises achieving good results, the Ministry of Agriculture and
Rural Development assigns the Department of Agro-forestry-Fisheries Quality
Assurance to lead and coordinate with the Directorate of Fisheries and
Departments of Agriculture and Rural Development in provinces to form and
organize inspection teams to verify the actual implementation of the IUU
Regulations, overcome limitation from the DG-MARE Inspection Delegation of seafood
processing enterprises exporting to EU from now until the end of October 2019.
.
Internationally,
the term IUU means “illegal, unreported and unregulated” fishing. This regulation covers three standards for
seafood imported into the EU. If the rate of violation of these regulations is
low, it can be ignored, but if the rate is high, the EU will check the entire exported
products of the place of origin for at least 6 months, also known as a "yellow
card" penalty.
If exceeding
the 6-month time limit or beyond the extended time period, the violating
country has not yet remedied the recommendations in the "yellow card"
penalty, it may be subjected to a "red card", which means banning from
exporting fisheries products to the EU.
In October
2017, Vietnam was given a "yellow card" by the EU for violating IUU
fishing; 9 recommendations are required to overcome. After the first inspection
in May 2018, Vietnam was extended the "yellow card" for another 6
months after the EU saw some shortcomings in implementing the recommendations.
This coming November will be the next EU inspection of Vietnam's fishing
activities.
VIFEP
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