Anti-IUU fishing inspection at 12 seafood enterprises

The inspection team read the decision to establish the Team at the enterprise.

Accordingly, the inspection team was established by the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Lam Dong province during the above period. The content of the inspection is to check the implementation of regulations on preventing illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing for establishments and enterprises that purchase, process and export aquatic products to the European market in the province.

Checking documents and procedures related to regulations on preventing and combating IUU fishing at Hai Nam Company Limited (Phu Thuy ward).

After 5 days of inspection, in general, enterprises have well implemented regulations on preventing and combating IUU fishing. Specifically, enterprises apply advanced quality management systems, issue related procedures and policies; regulations on product traceability and recall; establish standards for processed raw materials, etc.

The delegation inspected the seafood processing process at Bex Company Limited (Phan Thiet Industrial Park)

In addition, the inspection showed that businesses checked the legality of raw materials to prevent the use of illegally caught materials. In particular, for raw materials in the province, raw materials were purchased from ships arriving at designated ports; information on illegal fishing vessels and vessels that lost their journey connection was checked on the website of the Department of Fisheries and Fisheries Control.

For domestic raw materials as semi-finished products, enterprises purchase them from factories on the list approved by the EU. The inspection team randomly inspected 2 batches of goods exported to the EU from imported raw materials. The results showed that the import records, production records, and export records had complete information, meeting the requirements to combat IUU exploitation. The enterprise also arranged raw materials and finished products in the warehouse in separate areas for goods exported to the EU and outside the EU; the archives are convenient for tracing the origin.

The delegation inspected the seafood processing process at Hai Wang Seafood Company Limited (Phan Thiet Fishing Port).

According to the opinions of some businesses in this inspection, Europe is a potential market for Vietnam's seafood exports. Therefore, businesses recommend Agencies create favorable conditions to restore exports to the EU market. At the same time, guide the procedures for issuing certificates to monitor the unloading output through ports, and issue certificates of origin of aquatic products (SC) for shrimp. On the other hand, consider and update more reasonable exploitation zones because Phu Quy Special Zone is an offshore route and 99% of vessels >15m are exploiting here (regulations on vessels >15m fishing in offshore routes)...

Fishing boats after a trip at Phan Thiet Fishing Port.

The whole province currently has 8,407 fishing vessels with a length of 6 meters or more (of which nearly 2,000 fishing vessels operate in offshore areas) and over 4,000 fishing vessels under 6 meters and motorized or non-motorized boats, with about 50,000 workers on board; the average annual output is over 230,000 tons.

At this time, along with the whole country, Lam Dong is making efforts to synchronously deploy many solutions to combat IUU fishing, determined to remove the "yellow card" of the European Commission (EC).
According to the plan, in October 2025, the EC Inspection Team will come to Vietnam to inspect the removal of the "yellow card" for the 5th time. Therefore, the provincial agricultural sector is implementing the "dual" goal of both focusing on combating IUU fishing, being ready to proactively welcome the EC Inspection Team to Vietnam, working with the whole country to resolve the removal of the "yellow card", and focusing on promoting and building a "value chain of exploited seafood", creating a source of clean raw materials for processing and export.

Source: https://baolamdong.vn/kiem-tra-chong-khai-thac-iuu-tai-12-doanh-nghiep-thuy-san-393347.html