HCMC – Japan will require an exploitation certificate for four types of aquatic products which Vietnam exports to the Northeast Asian country as of this December.
As per Japan’s regulations, a catch certificate or processing statement will apply to aquatic products processed from squids and cuttlefish; Pacific saury, Cololabis spp.; mackerels, Scomber spp; and sardines, Sardinops spp when they are exported to this country.
The regulation will take effect as of December 1, 2022.
Vietnam’s National Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Quality Assurance Department (Nafiqad), therefore, has told the facilities that process the above four types for export to Japan to prepare dossiers in line with Circular 21/2018/TT-BNNPTNT, filing to the regional agro-forestry and aqua products quality assurance center for certification.
At the same time, Vietnamese exporters are requested to coordinate with their Japanese partners to provide the required certificates for aqua-product consignments exported to this country.
The aqua products’ origin tracing requirement applies to the entire process from purchasing, finished-products storage and materials to importation and exportation.
Japan now acknowledges and applies a mechanism similar to the EU Regulation to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
Given that the yellow card imposed by the European Commission on Vietnam’s aqua products is yet to be removed, Japan’s tightening regulations on Vietnam’s aqua-products exports to this country pose a challenge to Vietnamese aqua product exporters in the coming time.
Japan overtook the U.S. as Vietnam’s largest aqua-products importer last October, with a total value of US$1.43 billion in the first 10 months of this year, an increase of 32.9% against the year-ago period.
