HCMCity (VNA) – Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien told the globalfood safety forum in Ho Chi Minh City on August 28 that Vietnam attachesimportance to fine-tuning regulations on goods quality as the issue directlyimpacts human health and consumers’ interests. 

Tiensaid the Health Ministry wants to acquire feedback of internationalorganisations, associations and businesses to adjust policies to meet importers’food demand.

DeputyMinister of Science and Technology Tran Van Tung said the ministry is providingsupport for manufacturers to develop products meeting international standards,and serving as a bridge to facilitate their access to the State incentives.

Theagro-fisheries and food sectors now employ nearly 46 percent of the total Vietnameseworkforce. The fishery sector alone raked in 7 billion USD from export in 2016.

Inaccordance with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s Food SafetyModernization Act (FSMA), the US Department of Agriculture will be responsiblefor inspecting catfish import. Therefore, experts advised Vietnamese exportersto quickly grasp new regulations to maintain farm produce export to the US.

ViceChairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (AmCham Vietnam) in HoChi Minh City Mark Gillin said in line with the FSMA, all plants that producegoods for export must extend registration every two years, starting fromOctober 1 – December 31, 2016.

InDecember 2016, as many as 1,845 Vietnamese food plants registered for export tothe US with FDA but in January 2017, the figure dropped to 806 due to theirlack of awareness of the new regulations.

Theevent was co-hosted by the AmCham Vietnam and the Association of Vietnamese High-QualityGoods Enterprises.-VNA