US Department of Agriculture gears up inspection for Vietnamese pangasuis

According to the National Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Quality Assurance Department (NAFIQAD) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) under the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) will send a working delegation to Vietnam for the second tine of Pangasius inspection from March 2-13 after the first inspection in October 31, 2019.

In May, 2018, USDA FSIS inspected at Pangasius processing factories; and the upcoming inspection, the agency is expected to focus on Pangasuis feeding process.

FSIS inspections are to evaluate Vietnam's Pangasius food safety control system exported to the US market according to US standards.

The US Agricultural Act 2014 required that exported catfish countries including Vietnam’s Pangasius to the US market have to strictly ensure a food safety control system in processes of breeder production, aquaculture, transportation, preliminary processing, processing and export similar to the US standards.

After the first inspection, the US Department of Agriculture had officially announced the decision to recognize Vietnam's food safety control system for pangasius export to the US which was equivalent to the production processes in the US. 

However, at that time, FSIS also showed some errors needed to be fixed; and this upcoming inspection is to re-check overcoming the deficiencies as well as maintaining the food safety control system.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, pangasius export turnover in 2019 reached US$ 2.01 billion, down 11.4 percent compared to 2018. 

Currently, the pangasius sector has developed a good product chain with 4,860 fish farming ponds with identification code certification, 6,600 hectares of pangasius farms is controlled food safety, 3,900 hectares of pangasius aquaculture crops certified VietGAP, GlobalGAP, BAP, ASC, etc.