Speaking at a seminarco-hosted by the Directorate of Fisheries, the US Embassy in Vietnam and theVietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Processors (VASEP) in Ho Chi Minh Cityon August 1, Celeste Leroux, an expert from the National Oceanic andAtmospheric Administration (NOAA), urged Vietnamese producers and exporters towork with US importers to provide information as required.
From December 31, shrimpand abalone imports will be subject to mandatory compliance under the US Seafood ImportMonitoring Programme (SIMP).
The programme requiresimporters to keep records from harvest to the point of entry to the US for fishand fish products particularly vulnerable to illegal, unreported andunregulated (IUU) fishing or seafood fraud.
Thirteen species, namely abalone, Atlantic cod,blue crab (Atlantic), dolphin fish (Mahi Mahi), grouper, king crab (red),Pacific cod, red snapper, sea cucumber, shark, shrimp, swordfish and tuna, are identifiedas particularly vulnerable to IUU fishing and fraud.
VASEP General SecretaryTruong Dinh Hoe said a long time ago, Vietnamese seafood exporters establishedprogrammes to trace the origin of their products when exporting to the US andEU.
“The issue is how wesystematise and standardise the information we need to provide and keepstandardised records to maintain our exports to the US”, he said.
In the near future, VASEP will work with theDirectorate of Fisheries and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development tosupport businesses so seafood exports to the US are uninterrupted.
Among the 13 species under SIMP supervision,shrimp is the hardest hit. Each year, shrimp exports to the US are valued at500 million – 1 billion USD, or more than half of the total seafood shipment ofabout 1.5 billion USD to the market.
The US is one of the largest seafoodimporters worldwide with a value of roughly 96 billion USD.-VNA