Japan Funds Safety of Vietnamese Agricultural, Seafood Products

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) recently pledged to provide around JPY350 million (US$4.5 million) in aid for a project to improve the safety of agricultural and aquatic products in Vietnam.

 

The project aims to enhance Vietnam’s monitoring system for agricultural and aquatic product safety. Funding for the three-year project (2011-2014) will come from the Japanese government’s non-refundable aid.

Under the project, Japan will transfer technology for food safety monitoring to Vietnam, upgrade the Vietnamese food safety monitoring system and help to train Vietnamese staff.

 

Food poisoning is still a big problem in Vietnam. But it is not only a health issue. Many exports have been rejected by other countries because of health safety issues.

 

Nguyen Nhu Tiep, Director General, National Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Quality Assurance Department (NAFIQAD) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said, “Both governments of Vietnam and Japan set out three targets for the project: enhancing capacity in agro-forestry and fishery foods inspection; renovating National Inspection Programme on agro-forestry and fishery foods; and enhancing capacity of officials involved in the programme.”