Door Wide Open for Vietnam Aquatic Products to Enter Argentina

During the inspection, SENASA focused on evaluating legal documents, the capability of responsible government agencies and the food quality assurance activities of several aquatic food processing facilities in Vietnam. The organisation came to the conclusion that all registered Vietnamese businesses have met the requirements to export aquatic products to Argentina.

 

According to Mr Gustavo Alvarez, Head of the Inspecting Delegation, in the space of nine days from August 18 to 27, the delegation performed their inspection tasks in the Mekong River Delta; met representatives from central and regional government offices responsible for the quality of agro, forestry and fishery products in Vietnam; visited culturing areas in An Giang and Can Tho, two crustacean raising centres in Ca Mau province, one mollusc raising facility in Tien Giang province, two laboratories in Ca Mau and Ho Chi Minh City and 17 producing and processing facilities which are certified to meet the food quality assurance standard. SENASA has a high regard for the thoroughness and comprehensiveness of Vietnam's legal documents concerning food quality assurance. These regulations fully meet the current standard in Argentina.

 

In the laboratories, there is modern equipment; analysing results are in line with the current regulation; procedures are strictly followed during the sampling, checking, analyzing and processing steps. In Tien Giang, responsible employees clearly explained to the delegation the mollusc harvesting procedures and quality assurance activities through tabular summary and periodic inspection. The work ethics of employees and workers directly involved in the manufacturing process and the quality assurance activities are above average.

 

The SENASA delegation also had a high regard for the amount of invested capital and the scale of aquatic food processing factories and facilities in Vietnam. Besides producing and processing expertise, some companies also have automated production lines to produce fish paste and cod-liver oil.

 

In general, aquatic food producing and processing activities in Vietnam are well-executed, meeting quality assurance standard in Argentina. On the other hand, the delegation also spotted several mistakes during the inspection. At some culture area facilities, there are still employees who violated of the food quality assurance regulations. Though these mistakes are not serious and detrimental to the quality assurance processes, these employees should be warned not to repeat them in the future. Regarding the production line for processing fish paste, the delegation recommended that there should be separation among support production, main production and dumpster areas. There is stagnant water on the floor at some facilities; equipment being sterilized by chlorine could easily contaminate production tools in the proximity. Mr Gustavo Alvarez, however, believes that those mistakes can certainly be corrected.  

 

After the preliminary evaluation by the SENASA Inspecting Delegation, Mr Nguyen Nhu Tiep, Director of NAFIQAD was committed to sending documents to every business exporting to the Argentina market, informing them of the conclusions of the delegation so that they can deploy immediate corrective mechanisms.

Mr Tiep also hopes that SENASA and NAFIQAD, together with concerned parties, will reach an agreement to acknowledge each party's agencies and lists of businesses exporting aquatic products. In order to strengthen the import-export relationship between the two countries, in November 2012, NAFIQAD will send a delegation to Argentina to inspect the food quality assurance activities of aquatic food processing facilities in the country.