Several seafood importers in Vietnam have seen their consignments stuck in ports due to a new animal health certificate requirement from a government department, according to a report from Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP).
As many as 50 seafood containers, most of which contain tuna, have been stuck in ports since 3 November with demurrage charge reaching hundreds of millions of Vietnamese dong. These containers are owned by six VASEP members, including Hai Vuong, Bidifisco, Hai Nam, Amanda Foods, Everwin Industrial, and Highland Dragon. As a result, a few of these companies have temporarily halted operations at their processing plants, and most are facing contract penalties for failing to deliver to their buyers on time.
Adding even greater urgency to the matter, an additional 200 containers of tuna are expected to arrive at Vietnam ports in November and December, said VASEP.
Hai Vuong, Vietnam’s biggest tuna exporter, lacks material for processing despite having tried to buy tuna from the local market. The company is considering putting on hold the imports of 280 containers (equivalent to about 7,000 metric tons of tuna) for processing in December.
Amanda Foods said it has immediately notified its customers about the situation and reduced its import and export activities. The company will cut 25 percent of its production capacity in November.
Everwin Industrial, which imports around 80 percent of its production demand, has had to halt imports of 800 MT of tuna recently.
The remaining importers either put on hold imports or postponed signing of new import contracts due to the new health certificate rule.
On 24 September this year, Vietnam's Animal Health Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, issued an order requiring consignments imported directly from ships on the high seas to carry an animal health certificate. The order led to several consignments being stuck at Vietnam ports for nearly three weeks starting 26 September. The containers could only be freed following another order from the Animal Health Department on 15 October, which told local animal health units to cease asking importers for such a certificate. The 15 October order was issued after a meeting on 12 October between the Animal Health Department, other relevant government agencies, VASEP, and concerned importers, VASEP said.
But on 3 November, the Animal Health Department issued a revision to its previous order, saying containers must wait at ports until they receive clearance from the Agriculture Ministry.
VASEP has argued that the animal health check is not needed because the tuna shipments are imported directly from ships at sea and have not been through any processing phases. This process has been used for the past 10 years and is an international practice, according to VASEP.
On 13 November, VASEP sent a letter to Agriculture Minister Nguyen Xuan Cuong, asking him to issue directions for freeing the consignments stuck in the country’s ports.
Photo courtesy of Portunus
