On Jan 10th 2018, The National Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Quality Assurance Department (NAFIQAD) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) of Vietnam sent the letter No 57/ CLCL-CL1 to Food Safety Competent Authorities of exporting countries on informing the requirements for fishery consignments imported into Vietnam for further processing and export to the EU.
According to European Commission regulations (EC) No 178/2002, 852/2004, 853/2004, 854/2004, any consignment of fishery product intended for export to the EU must be accompanied by a health certificate attesting that fishery product has been caught and handled on board vessel, landed, handled and prepared, processed frozen and thawed in accordance with EU regulations. Therefore, NAFIQAD, as the Vietnamese competent authority in charge of food safety inspection and certification of fishery products for export, would like to inform the requirements for fishery consignments imported into Vietnam for further processing and export to EU as follows:
- For fish and fishery consignments, bivalve molluscs, the health certificate issued by competent authority of exporting country must include the following attestations.
+ come from (an) establishment (s) implementing a programme based on the HACCP principles in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 852/2004;
+ have been caught and handled on board vessels, landed, handled and where appropriate prepared, processed, frozen and thawed hygienically in compliance with the requirements laid down in Section VIII, Chapters I to IV of Annex III to Regulation (EC) No 853/2004;
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- For consignments of frozen fishery product imported directly into Vietnam from freezer vessels; the consignment must be accompanied with document signed by the captain stating that:
+ the vessel appears on the list of vessels from which imports to the European Union are permitted (being “EU-list”);
+ the vessel has a programme based on the HACCP principles in order to control hazards;
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Please click here to see the full letter