CAN THO – After an online inspection, the General Administration of Customs China (GACC) found some foreign exporters, including a seafood firm in Vietnam, failing to meet anti-Covid standards, thereby suspending them from shipping their products to China.
The Vietnamese firm and two others from South Korea and Indonesia are subject to the suspension, which took effect on August 15, according to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP).
The duration of the suspension is unknown, said the association.
These firms reportedly failed to follow the guidelines issued by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization on the control and prevention of Covid spread at food production and processing facilities. Besides, they failed to meet China’s requirements on food safety.
On July 21, the National Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Quality Assurance Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development sent a dispatch to VASEP and seafood exporters informing them of China’s new regulations on anti-Covid measures for frozen seafood products.
The department also announced that the Chinese side would conduct online checks in one or two weeks after it found a batch of seafood infected with Covid.
If firms whose shipments of seafood to China are found to be positive for Covid fail to arrange an online inspection as required, the Chinese agency will stop importing their batches and ban them from exporting their products to the nation.
As such, the department advised local seafood exporters to follow anti-Covid measures and meet the Chinese side’s requirements to prevent the spread of Covid and avoid a suspension of exporting goods to China.
