Vietnam pulls export licenses from companies barred by EU

The Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has stopped granting licenses for seafood shipments from exporters barred by the European Union for using banned substances in their products.

MARD said the disqualified exporters could regain their licenses if they submitted to inspections on the banned shipments. They would also need to pass tests conducted by Vietnam’s National Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries Quality Assurance Department (NAFIQAD).

Ngô Hồng Phong, NAFIQAD’s deputy director, said the department would update information on warnings received from the E.U. Commission’s Directorate General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE), and provide documents to exporters.

NAFIQAD also asked seafood processors exporting to the E.U. to review their quality management programs and instigate solutions to control banned substances.

DG SANTE wrote to NAFIQAD on 2 August saying the E.U. had decided to remove a Vietnamese seafood exporter, whose name remains undisclosed, from the list of approved exporters.

The sanction was made after antibiotics were found in the company’s shipments to the E.U. In late April, NAFIQAD issued a warning against seafood shipments from four Vietnamese exporters, saying their products did not meet E.U. food safety requirements.

The four exporters, located in the Mekong Delta region, are: Cần Thơ Export-Import Seafood Joint Stock Company, Southern Fishery Industries Co Ltd, Foodtech Joint Stock Co and Khang Thông Joint Stock Company.

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