(seafood.vasep.com.vn) With the aim of developing aquaculture sector sustainably, the agriculture industry has been implementing measures to harmonize VietGAP standards with global standards. These efforts are expected to reduce production costs and raise the export value of seafood products.
In the past 5 years (2011-2015), Directorate of Fisheries (D-Fish) has designed and introduced VietGAP program to apply into aquaculture sector. VietGAP standards are effectively applied to pangasius, black tiger shrimp and whiteleg shrimp. In 2015, in the whole country, there were 75 farms with the area of more than 686 ha being certified by VietGAP. These farms included 42 pangasius ones, 23 whiteleg shrimp ones; the others were facilities of farming black tiger shrimp, tilapia and giant freshwater prawn. VietGAP application in the Mekong Delta have made significant progress.
D-Fish is in the process of reviewing VietGAP program to simplify the standards in the VietGAP program while ensuring the criteria of the international certification organizations. To harmonize VietGAP standards with sets of global standards, D-Fish has been signing Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with many international certification organizations on the project of comparing, evaluating and approaching to mutual recognization.
Compiled by Kim Thu