Gross violations of Russian rules lead to sweeping halt on seafood importation from Vietnam

Russia's Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance Rosselkhoznadzor has introduced temporary restrictions for seafood shipments from all fish processing plants of Vietnam as of 20 December 2008 and a spokesman of the Service's has given grounds for such a crucial decision, reports www.fishnet-russia.com (www.fishnet.ru) with reference to an official source in Rosselkhoznadzor.

More specifically, the Russian vets say that the announced restrictions have been triggered by a loss of confidence in the Vietnamese controlling bodies, Nafiqaved in particular, who are claimed to have been issuing certificates to the plants non-approved for export to the Russian Federation. As per early December 2008 no information as to prospects of lifting the restrictions has been available. Presumably, any information of that sort will appear after the controlling bodies of Vietnam give the necessary guarantees that such practice will not be repeated in the future, according to the spokesman.

Background

Prior to the above mentioned decision the Russian vets have inspected the Vietnamese fish processing companies exporting their products to the Russian Federation and disclosed a number of violations of the Russian veterinary and hygiene requirements.

In this connection, importation of seafood shipped from the Vietnamese plants after 20 December 2008 will be prohibited, according to the directive No. FS-AS-4/12001.