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Tuna export of Binh Dinh Seafood Joint Stock Company to EU accounts for 60-70 percent of output. Photo: T.H

Export dropped because of the yellow card

The EU is Vietnam's second largest seafood import market, bringing about US$350-400 million annually. This is also a market accounting for 17-18 percent of Vietnam's total seafood export value. However, since the European Commission (EC) gave the IUU yellow card for Vietnamese seafood, exports to this market have begun to show signs of slowing.

Nguyen Hoai Nam, Deputy General Secretary of Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), said after two years of EC warning yellow card for Vietnam's seafood exports to the EU market has been significantly affected, down 6.5 percent to nearly 390 million USD in 2018 and continued to level off in the first 8 months of 2019 with 251 million USD. From second position in Vietnam's seafood import markets, after the yellow card, the EU market has dropped to fifth and the proportion of the market has decreased from 18 percent to 13percent.

Businesses said that the IUU yellow card has caused many negative impacts, directly affecting the export of seafood to the EU and the subsequent impact on the US market and other potential markets. Specifically, seafood exports to the EU will decrease because EU customers are afraid of being fined under the IUU regulations, which will reduce or stop buying goods from Vietnam. The warning country name is also made public in EU official magazines and websites, harming the image and adversely affecting the reputation and brand of Vietnam's seafood industry.

During the time of the yellow card, all seafood containers exported to the EU were detained to check the origin of the exploitation, causing time-consuming and incurred the cost of checking the origin of £500 / container, port storage charges, but the biggest risk is the large percentage of containers being rejected, the loss of seafood exports to the EU when a yellow card on average can reach 10,000 Euro / container.

Cao Thi Kim Lan, Director of Binh Dinh Seafood Joint Stock Company, said Binh Dinh is one of the provinces with the largest number of fishing vessels in the central region, most of which are fishing offshore for export. In particular, the EU is the main export market, accounting for 60-70 percent of seafood export turnover of Bidifisco but since Vietnam's seafood got the IUU yellow card, exporting to the EU is extremely difficult.

Specifically, if exported seafood to the EU was automatically cleared, it is now blocked from the port to check the origin of the exploitation, resulting in a clearance time of 10-15 days. This will not only incur shipping costs, inspection costs, but also affect the importer's delivery time and business plan. After two years, the proportion of seafood exports to the EU is only 40 percent of the total export value, reaching about 30 million USD / year; businesses must seek alternative markets and increase processing to solve the output problem.

Effort to overcome

According to Nguyen Thi Thu Sac, Vice President of VASEP, being aware of the influence of IUU yellow card on Vietnam's seafood exports to the EU market and the prestige of Vietnamese seafood products on the world market, it is necessary to identify to move towards a sustainable development of the seafood industry; from September 25, 2017, the VASEP Seafood Committee (VMPC) and Vietnam seafood processing and export enterprises have made efforts to overcome.

After two years of persistence with the goal of removing the yellow card and the sustainable development of Vietnam's seafood exploitation and processing industry, Vietnamese seafood enterprises have been very active with activities such as the IUU commitment is against IUU fishing, seriously implementing the commitment to fight IUU fishing, only purchasing seafood materials from legal fishing vessels with clear origins, only importing seafood caught from legal fishing, comply with the provisions of the United States, EU and Vietnam to fight IUU fishing, participating in seminars, training and propaganda on IUU fishing.

VASEP Seafood Committee, IUU Executive Board and businesses are very active in joining hands with agencies and localities to implement the recommendations of the EC, which is most evident in participating, proposing and commenting on amendments and completion of the legal framework such as the Fisheries Law, the decree guiding the Fisheries Law and relevant Circulars.

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In addition, VASEP Association has worked closely with parties such as the Coast Guard Command, ministries and international organisations in the communication and training on IUU for businesses and fishermen, especially maintaining a good cooperative relationship with the EC reporting and sharing information about Vietnam's efforts in combating IUU fishing.

After two years of implementing the programme, VASEP and the Vietnam Fisheries Enterprise community commit to continue working with state management agencies and fishing communities, consistently with the motto “no IUU”- determination for Vietnam's sustainable fisheries and for the purpose of maintaining the export market of Vietnam's seafood products.