Vietnam has been taking concrete steps to combat illegal fishing, as it never wants the “yellow card” given by the European Commission to thwart the country’s booming seafood exports, the country’s government has said in a public statement.
Vietnam’s Directorate of Fisheries said it is coordinating with other government ministries and agencies to implement drastic measures to effectively carry out the EC’s recommendations in six months, by 23 April, 2018, in hopes that the warning can be removed.
The EC issued the "yellow card" to Vietnam in October 2017, warning the Southeast Asian country it could ban its seafood shipments entirely unless Hanoi did more to tackle illegal fishing.
However, soon after the warning was issued, at least 16 fishing vessels with 118 fishermen were caught fishing in the exclusive economic zones of other countries and arrested.
Adding in the remainder of 2017 – including before the warning was issued – more than 1,200 Vietnamese fishermen were detained abroad, including in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, for illegally operating in their waters.
In response, the Vietnamese government released a white book on illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing was announced on 15 January, and Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc approved a national action plan the following day, aiming to put an end to IUU fishing.
Under the action plan, an inter-sectoral working group led by the officials from the country’s Agriculture Ministry has been established to coordinate the country’s response. That response includes technical upgrades for coastal stations run by the Vietnamese Directorate of Fisheries in 28 coastal cities and provinces, which will collect and analyze information provided by fishing vessels. That will result in the creation of a database covering the country’s entire fisheries sector, which will then be used to verify, trace, and certify the origin of domestic seafood, according to the action plan. The system will also be used to halt the import of fish products sourced from IUU fishing, according to the plan.
Also, on 16 January, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development issued a circular asking heads of coastal provinces to impose strict fines on fishermen operating illegally in other countries’ waters. And on 1 February, many seafood companies in Vietnam showed their commitment to combating IUU fishing by simultaneously hanging a notice at their processing plants.
“We are committed to not illegally fishing, purchasing, processing and exporting seafood products sourced from IUU fishing,” the notice said.
If the EC decides Vietnam has not done enough and implements a “red card,” all Vietnamese exports would be banned from entering the European Union. That ban would strike a blow at Vietnam’s stated ambition to reach USD 9 billion (EUR 7.3 billion) in seafood exports in 2018, as other major markets such as the United States may impose similar sanctions, Vietnamese officials have warned.
In 2017, the European Union surpassed the United States to become the top destination for seafood products from Vietnam. The Southeast Asian nation exported seafood volumes worth USD 1.4 billion (EUR 1.2 billion) to 14 major buyers in the E.U. in 2017, up 22.1 percent from 2016, Vietnam’s customs data showed.
