Binh Dinh: All fishing ships must obtain food safety certificates by end of June

Binh Dinh (VNA) – All fishing ships in Binh Dinh must obtain food safety certificates by the end of June as part of efforts to enhance the quality of fishery products caught by the south-central province's fishing fleet, according to a local agricultural official.

The province has been accelerating a campaign to raise local fishermen's awareness about their responsibility to abide by the Law on Fishery and persuade ship owners into signing a commitment to not encroaching foreign waters, said Tran Van Phuc, Director of the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

These moves are intended to implement the European Commission (EC)’s recommendations to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing practice in order to have the EC’s “yellow card” on Vietnam’s seafood lifted, Phuc said.

In the first quarter of 2021, the provincial Fisheries Department granted over 160 food safety certificates to fishing vessels with a length of 15 metres or more which have been licensed to operate offshore. So far, over 2,800 out of 3,200 offshore fishing vessels in the province have received the certificate.

The department has streamlined procedures to cut the time to get the food safety certificates in accordance with current regulations. Now it only takes a day for a food safety certificate to be issued, instead of three days as before, deputy director of the department Nguyen Cong Binh said.

There are nearly 400 boats of 15 metres or more in length left without a food safety certificate in Binh Dinh, most of which go fishing offshore and dock to sell their catches in ports outside the province.

The sub-department plans to send officials to neighbouring coastal provinces to check the status of these ships and request them to obtain food safety certificate./.