US Farm Bill wont impact Vietnamese fish – Fishfarmer Magazine
US Farm Bill wont impact Vietnamese fish18 February, 2014 –
THE recent US Farm Bill will not have a direct impact on Vietnamese tra and basa fish this year, according to the general secretary of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), Truong Dinh Hoe.
In a statement Dinh Hoe explained that only in 2015 when the guidelines on the implementation of the new law are completed would Vietnamese producers and exporters be affected.
This leaves them with a full year to prepare for the new regulations, which include catfish inspection being moved from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to the Department of Agriculture.
As such, all exported Vietnamese catfish will need to fulfil the same requirements as local US products, including production and packaging.
This leaves the Vietnamese government and catfish producers with only a year to comply with the regulations, which pose issues in a number of areas, particularly in breeding area planning, where the Vietnamese farmers are several years behind their US counterparts.
Pham Anh Tuan, the Deputy Head of Vietnams Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s General Department of Fisheries, said that the Bill was an example of the technical barriers put in place by importers to protect local agricultural products.
However, Truong Dinh Hoe highlighted the importance of working with the US government to ensure that Vietnamese farmers were given a fair deal, and that supervision programmes followed common standards.