Aquatic Exports - Foreseeable Difficulties

 

Food safety barriers Ngo Anh Tuan PhD, Chief of the Planning and Finance Department under the Ministry of Fisheries, said the structure of the aquatic exporting market in the first six months of the year has been over-turned. In 2006, Japan was the leading export market of aquatic products, with turnover of US$ 800 million (25 percent of total export turnover), following were the EU and the US. However, in the first six months of this year, Japan’s turnover dropped to only 17 percent of total export turnover. Because of food safety barriers, the total aquatic exports to Japan are just 39, 000 tonnes, declining nearly 8 percent in comparison with the same period last year, and its export turnover is just US$ 240 million, decreasing nearly 10 percent from the same period last year. On June 25th, 2007, Norio Hattori, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan, filed a letter to the Vietnam Ministry of Fisheries about exceeding antibiotic limits in aquatic products exported to Japan. It is quoted: “Since last year, the amount of antibiotic, which is prohibited in the Food Safety Law of Japan, has been repeatedly discovered in squids and prawns exported to Japan from Vietnam. If such problems continue, the Japanese Quarantine Authority will enforce appropriate punishments, such as import prohibition, etc.” After adopting both mild and harsh punishments, Japan recently raised the ultimatum of import prohibition. It is estimated 94 consignments, of 6,000 exported from Vietnam to Japan since the beginning of the year, have been warned for violations. According to Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), the CPA infection is caused by material maintenance during exploitation; particularly, AOZ infections in prawn consignments probably result from the pond-raising process.

 

Weak points
According to Nguyen Tu Cuong, Chief of the National Fisheries Quality Assurance and Veterinary Directorate (NAFIQAVED), an increasing number of Vietnamese enterprises have been accused of exporting antibiotic-infected consignments of aquatic products to Japan, some of which were returned but others, because of profit, were not completely banned from Japan. This has negatively impacted the Vietnamese aquatic product brand. Unlike many markets, such as, the EU and Korea, aquatic consignments exported to Japan were not forced to undergo quality tests previously. Tests for prohibited antibiotics and chemicals were conducted at the request of enterprises for their own liability for the quality of the aquatic exports. Asked about food safety testing cost for export consignments, some enterprises reflected that the cost is too high. Do Ngoc Quy, General Director of Kim Anh Ltd, argued that because of increasing input cost, earnings from prawn consignment have declined to only 2 percent, while the testing cost is increasing. The testing cost for NAFIQAVED alone is estimated for VND 3.6 billion per year. During the past year, two main Vietnamese aquatic exports, tiger prawns and catfish, are facing difficulties such as trade barriers for catfish exports to U.S and food safety barriers for tiger prawn exports to Japan. Cuu Long, with the biggest aquatic product output and export turnover in Vietnam, is now facing difficulty controlling food usage and veterinary drugs for aquaculture.

 

Short-term solutionsIn all likelihood, Vietnamese aquatic products will be not allowed for export to Japan, on July 3^rd in Ho Chi Minh, VASEP and NAFIQAVED co-organized a meeting proposing harsh punishments on violating enterprises. After the meeting, Tran Thien Hai, Chairman of VASEP, notified the Minister of Fisheries about excessive antibiotics in aquatic exports to Japan. Besides, VASEP suggested the Ministry of Fisheries direct NAFIQAVED in controlling chloramphenicol and AOZ derivatives in all export consignments to Japanese enterprises. VASEP will consider revoking the export licenses of enterprises which have provided consignments exceeding antibiotic limits to the market in the past one to six months. Hai added that such methods, however, have not eliminated the exceeding amounts of antibiotic. Therefore, it is more important that the authorities should intensify control of prohibited antibiotics in aquatic products by testing unknown-origin consignments imported by commercial agents, then identifying the liabilities of direct manufacturers and suppliers. Moreover, it is necessary to strictly check ship owners, purchasing agents, agents of chemical and veterinary drugs, and food manufacturers. There are especially harsh punishments for individuals and enterprises intentionally using prohibited antibiotics, and work permit confiscation for enterprises that violate food safety standards.

 

Luong Le Phuong, Deputy Minister of Fisheries, said competitiveness is more severe as Vietnam is now an official WTO member. Therefore, the Ministry of Fisheries is consolidating its position in main markets like Japan, the EU and the US. For this, it is necessary to strengthen the vertical association between manufacturers and farmers, and the horizontal association among farmers, purchasers, and exporters, who aim to create cleaner aquatic products.

 

Nguyen Tu Cuong, Chief of NAFIQAVED, announced that during the past year many new model farms producing clean aquatic products were adopted in many places, such as Binh Dai (Ben Tre), Cam Lap (Khanh Hoa), Quoc Viet company (Ca Mau), Vinh Hau (Bac Lieu), Vinh Thuan company (Soc Trang), Ben Tre forest and aquatic product export and import company, Hung Vuong company (Tien Giang), Agifish company (An Giang). In such farms, there are stricter controls on tiger prawns and catfish breeding, raising, veterinary drugs, preservation, manufacturing and exporting.

 

 “There are always both challenges and opportunities merged in each market. If the supply of aquatic products is kept smoothly in Japan, there will be more orders made from the US because of decreasing supply of China. In contrast, if the problem of antibiotics is not handled well in Japan, surely Vietnamese aquatic exports will be put under pressure in price and quality”, analyzed Nguyen Huu Dung, vice-chairman of VASEP.