(vasep.com.vn) ASEAN countries are supplying 80 percent of the global shrimp output while they have to follow various standards set by importing countries. Therefore, ASEAN shrimp producers and processors are working to build a common set of standards for their shrimps, which is suitable with ASEAN nations' conditions and harmonized with other popular international requirements, Vice Chairman of VASEP Nguyen Huu Dung said.
The set of ASEAN shrimp standards will be divided and applied for extensive shrimp and industrial shrimp, he added.
The ASEAN shrimp standards are expected to be enforced by 2015, when the ASEAN Economic Community is also formed.
On February 26, a seminar to find more comments from shrimp farmers and processors on standards for ASEAN shrimp was held in Can Tho city by VASEP, the Vietnam Fisheries Society and the ASEAN-US Maximising Agricultural Revenue through Knowledge, Enterprise Development and Trade (ASEAN-US MARKET) project, funded by the US Agency for International Development.
At the seminar, Corey Peet, an expert from the ASEAN-US MARKET project, presented the goals, scope and the development of the draft for the ASEAN shrimp standards, strategies for accessing to buyers, support for farmers to follow the requirements.