The Panama Food Safety Authority (AUPSA) has approved 17 seafood processing facilities in Vietnam to export seafood products to the country. The announcement came in an official letter sent by AUPSA to Vietnam’s National Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries Quality Assurance Department (NAFIQAD).
NAFIQAD Director Nguyễn Như Tiệp said the department had advised the 17 companies to actively interact with their customers and importers in Panama. Meanwhile, they must also be registered with the NAFIQAD under existing regulations for seafood product exports to Panama, reported vietnamplus.vn.
Tiệp said NAFIQAD would require its regional agricultural, forestry and fisheries quality centers to inspect export batches and issue export licenses for them based on AUPSA’s standards.
In addition, he said the department had also asked AUPSA to quickly announce the problems associated with seafood processing and export facilities in Vietnam that Panama had inspected in June but which were not granted permission to export seafood to Panama.
The announcement of those problems will help Vietnamese companies find solutions to reach Panama’s food standards and achieve permission to export to Panama, he said.
According to NAFIQAD’s official letter to AUPSA, the department has also asked for clarifications of some regulations that were not deemed suitable for seafood products.
