Conformity regulation for animal feed and supplemental feed products proposed to postpone

Acting director of Livestock Production Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development Duong Tat Thang said that the department would propose the ministry postpone the implementation of conformity regulation for animal feed and supplemental feed products instead of July 1, 2021.

However, it was up to the ministry leaders to decide how long to postpone the conformity announcement for animal feed and supplemental feed products.

Thang said that the conformity announcement was regulated in current laws.

He also said that some regulations or requirements issued in legal documents failed to catch up with current practice and it was difficult to avoid such a problem.

Meeting with Livestock Production Department’s leaders on June 9, chairman of the Vietnam Association of Veterinary Medicine Production and Trade (VAVMPT) Hoang Trieu said that Animal Health Department under the agriculture ministry called on the agriculture ministry and science and technology ministry to postpone the conformity announce for animal medicines and vaccines until 2024.

The Ministry of Health also removed conformity regulation for animal medicines and supplemental.

No other country in the world now used conformity regulation for animal feed and supplemental feed products, he said.

“VAVMP strongly asks for the removal of the conformity regulation for animal feed and supplemental feed products as now, almost all production lines of animal supplemental feed products meet global standards GMG-WHO," he ”aid, adding that it was not necessary to apply lower standards to manage the production and the products’ quality.

Bach Quoc Thang, Director General of Vietnam Green Vet Joint Stock Company said that the Department of Livestock Production should allow enterprises to send the same samples for safety testing and quality inspection at the same time for products registered for circulation for the first time. 

Currently, authorities allow enterprises to send certifying agencies product samples by themselves to get the quality certificate. Meanwhile, regarding safety criteria, representatives from certifying organisations go to the factory to take samples directly on the production line. 

This stage did not help improve the quality and safety of animal feed products when circulated on the market, Thang said.

Thang proposed to change the validity time of regulation conformity from 3 years to 5 years for synchronization, consistent with the 5-year term of the circulation license, thereby, facilitating the monitoring and management of enterprises.

In particular, businesses belonging to the Association of Veterinary Medicine Manufacturers and Traders are worried that July 1 is the last deadline for businesses to announce procedures for conformity for animal feeds and supplemental animal feed products but 78 businesses in the association have not completed this procedure.

“They would face a high risk of operation halt and fines,” he said.

Therefore, businesses and the association called on the Department of Livestock Production to advise and propose the leaders of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development postpone the regulation conformity for further reviewal, especially when enterprises are facing difficulties due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Nguyen Huu Dung, chairman and director-general of VinaCert Certification and Inspection Joint Stocks Company said that it was reasonable for animal feed producers to recommend removing the conformity regulation but the Livestock Production Department was not wrong to keep it.

Dũng said that the conformity regulation was passed in 2006 when Vietnam joined World Trade Organisation. As animal feed and supplemental feed products were commodities so they must be subject to legal regulations either those by the agriculture ministry or those by the science and technology ministry.