All seafood processing enterprises in Quang Ninh meet food safety standards

Quang Ninh is one of 28 provinces and cities in Vietnam that are located by the sea. Having 2,077 large and small islands, in addition to a coastline of 250km, the province has huge advantages of developing marine economy and fisheries, which have therefore received special attention from local authoties in recent years.

Implementation of Resolution No. 394/NQ-UBKHCNMT15 dated January 19, 2022 of the National Assembly's Committee for Science, Technology and Environment (CSTE) on " The implementation of legal policies on management of aquaculture, seafood processing and control of illegal, non-exploited and unregulated fishing" and monitoring plan No. 464/UBKHCNMT dated March 9, 2022, Quang Ninh Provincial People's Committee held a working session with the National Assembly Monitoring Delegation and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Specifically, a monitoring team that was led by Ta Dinh Thi, Vice Chairman of the Committee for Science, Technology and Environment, conducted an inspection at Tan An Seafood Joint Stock Company (Quang Yen Town), BIM Food Joint Stock Company and Ka Long Transport Company at Cai Rong Port (Van Don District). The team was joined by Phung Duc Tien, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development and Tran Dinh Luan, General Director of the General Department of Fisheries, together with other representatives of CSTE and Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers.

Since 2018, Quang Ninh has paid special attention to the issue of removing the IUU "yellow card" as well as the implementation of legal policies on management of aquaculture and seafood processing

According to Do Dinh Minh, Director of Quang Ninh Fisheries Sub-Department, the province currently has 184 seafood preliminary processing and processing enterprises, all of which have had their infrastructures and facilities meet the food safety requirements.

However, most of the enterprises have small-scale production with the lack of advanced technology and deeply processed products that is not commensurate with the development potential of the sector.

According to the assessment, the freezing capacity of seafood enterprises in the province, including equipment such as wind freezers, IQF contact freezers and wind tunnels, is estimated at 380 tons/day. Cold storage capacity reaches 11,700 tons.

Aquatic materials produced and put into processing factories account for about 25 per cent, the rest is consumed directly or consumed in fresh form. The annual seafood export value of Quang Ninh Province is estimated at about US$24.4 million/year.

The main products of local domestic preliminary processing and processing enterprises with small and super-small scale include fish sauce, chả mực (fried ground squid cakes), dried seafood, clams, oysters, among others.

Currently, 100% of seafood processing and preliminary processing enterprises in the province have basically met the conditions of food safety as prescribed. The aquatic products processing enterprises for domestic consumption have small scale and capacity, low commodity output, and do not discharge much sewage into the environment. In addition, most facilities have seriously implemented waste collection measures in accordance with environmental protection regulations.

Meanwhile, all local export seafood processing facilities have experts in planning environmental protection and conduct annual reports to assess the impacts of their processing activities on the surrounding environment.

To further promote Quang Ninh seafood, the province has encouraged and developed seafood processing enterprises to expand consumption of local aquaculture. The locality currently has 9 seafood processing factories, reaching about 7,500 tons of annual output of seafood processing and export.