Japanese experts have expressed confidence in the management and control of seafood safety and hygiene at processing factories across the country, according to the Viet Nam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers.
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Workers process seafood for export at Dai Duong Food Joint Stock Co in the southern province of Ca Mau. Japan has applauded Viet Nam's seafood safety standards at processing factories
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A delegation from the Pharmaceutical and Medical Safety Bureau of the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare is currently in Viet Nam on a five-day trip to inspect the country's seafood safety and hygiene systems.
The delegation has so far focused on assessing the management and distribution of veterinary medicines and the control of forbidden chemicals and antibiotic residues in locally produced seafood products destined for the Japanese market.
At a working session with the Japanese delegation, representatives from the National Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Quality Administrative Directorate of Viet Nam suggested the two organisations co-operate to assess hygiene and safety standards for export seafood.
The directorate said the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development would take products containing Trifluralin, off the list of products that require treatment after two batches of Vietnamese seafood in Japan were recently found to contain the harmful substance.
A representative from the safety bureau recommended the directorate co-operate with relevant ministries and agencies to identify and upgrade prohibited aquaculture facilities and improve control over the sale of veterinary medicines.
In the coming days the delegation is due to inspect five seafood processing factories and fishing ports in Binh Thuan Province.
A decision on the application of urgent measures to control chemical and antibiotic residue in seafood exports to Japan has been implemented since 2007.
Since then, traces of antibiotic residues in seafood exports to Japan have decreased sharply from 4.6 per cent in the second half of 2006 to 0.39 per cent in 2009.
Viet Nam's seafood export turnover to Japan in 2009 reached US$757.9 million. Frozen shrimp made up $493.6 million of that value and tra fish, $4.03 million./.