Some 5,400 tons of seafood for export are currently stuck at local fishing ports as these ports are not authorized to certify the origins of seafood, the local media reported, citing Nguyen Hoai Nam, deputy general secretary of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP).


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Employees are at work at a seafood processing factory in the Mekong Delta.


At a meeting on April 1 with the prime minister’s working group, Nam referenced difficulties with production and business activities in the agriculture sector triggered by prevailing regulations.

Specifically, only 47 of the 83 fishing ports nationwide are qualified to certify the origin of seafood batches, based on standards in Circular 21 issued last year by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The ministry’s Circular 36, also issued last year, has further hindered seafood exports. Accordingly, importers of seafood materials from transit ports must submit certified copies of certificates of origin issued by the countries where the transit ports are located.

The regulation is unreasonable, according to Nam.

Minister and Chairman of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung, who is also head of the working group, required the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to review and remove unnecessary regulations.

He also asked the ministry not to repeat previous mistakes, as when Circular 21 became effective on February 10 but was not publicized until February 14.

At the meeting, Nguyen Thi Kim Anh, head of the Department of Legislation under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, noted that by March 25, some 83 fishing ports were operational nationwide, serving some 9,300 fishing boats per day. Roughly 1.8 million tons of seafood is annually transported through these ports.

On April 24, the ministry will recognize the remaining fishing ports as eligible to certify the origin of seafood.

The ministry will also abolish the regulation in Circular 36 relating to the certificate of origin being issued by the countries of transit ports, Anh added.

SGT