The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers has requested the Directorate of Fisheries to monitor shrimp exports more stricly after Japan detected oxytetracycline, a prohibited antibiotic, in two cargoes of Vietnamese shrimps. — Photo moit.gov.vn

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) has requested the Directorate of Fisheries to monitor shrimp exports more strictly.

According to Document No 51 sent on March 20, VASEP requested the governmental agency to ask cities and provinces to improve monitoring to check for the presence of prohibited chemicals and antibiotics in exported seafood, especially oxytetracycline. The association also proposed to examine and manage equipments to prevent infections from the banned antibiotics, especially chloramphenicol and oxytetracycline.

VASEP asked the directorate to spread awareness among enterprises and shrimp farmers about the need to check for the presence of the two aforementioned antibiotics.

The document was released after some members of the association said that Japan had started testing for the presence of oxytetracycline in all shrimp imports from Viet Nam from the beginning of March, 2014.

VASEP checked with its Japanese partners and also the website of the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare about this report. During February and March, Japan had detected oxytetracycline in two cargoes of Vietnamese shrimps.

Earlier, according to Japan's imported foods monitoring plan for the fiscal year 2013 and 2014, Vietnamese shrimps were identified and set to be examined for two prohibited antibiotics, including chrolamphenicol from February 21, 2014 and oxytetracycline from February 27, 2014.

VASEP has updated the information and asked shrimp exporters to improve self-management on the presence of antibiotics in shrimps, especially the two aforementioned ones. — VNS