VietNamNet Bridge – The National Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Quality Assurance Department (Nafiqad) has proposed the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) recognize eight more Vietnamese tra (pangasius) fish processing factories as they meet the requirements for export to the U.S.

Employees are at work at a tra fish processing enterprise in the Mekong Delta. Nafiqad has proposed FSIS recognize eight more Vietnamese tra fish processing factories as they meet the requirements for export to the U.S – Photo: Trung Chanh

Nafiqad has proposed FSIS under the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) allow an additional eight local processors to export to America in the 18-month transitional period from early March to late-August 2017 in line with an inspection program for fish in the Siluriformes order, including Vietnam’s farmed tra and basa fish.

Nafiqad under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said all the processors proposed for U.S. recognition have been inspected and certified to meet food safety requirements.

In the transitional period, the competent authorities of exporting countries, including Vietnam, must register the list of enterprises and processors that want to continue shipping products to the U.S. for FSIS’s inspection, evaluation and accreditation.

Earlier, Nafiqad proposed FSIS recognize 13 local fish processing factories eligible to export to the U.S. FSIS has approved 45 Vietnamese fish processing firms to export their products to the U.S. in the transitional period.

Trung Chanh

SGT