Vietnam grants licenses to 460 US meat producers

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Vietnam has so far granted licenses to 460 US producers of meat and meat products and 210 exporters of aquatic products, said Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Quoc Doanh. At the meeting with Mr. Ted McKinney, Under Secretary of Agriculture for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs, Deputy Minister Le Quoc Doanh said that Vietnam has granted permission for 460 meat producers and 210 seafood exporters of the US to export to Vietnam.

Vietnam has also allowed the US to export fresh fruits, including cherry, pear, grape, apple, blueberry, and orange, to Vietnam and is in the process to evaluate risks on plant quarantine and biosecurity for grapefruit, nectarine, apricot, and plum of the US to soon permit the import of them into the country.

Deputy Minister Le Quoc Doanh also asked the US Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to soon give the nod to the Hanoi Irradiation Center and Toan Phat Irradiation Limited Company to participate in the irradiation program of fresh fruits for exporting to the US, and the addition of the vapor heat treatment on fresh fruits exported to the US, and to quickly complete the process and the procedure of risk assessment for Vietnamese pomelos to be able to export to the US.

As scheduled from March 2 – 13, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) will send a delegation to Vietnam to conduct a periodic review on the safety control program for siluriformes fish exported to the US.

Deputy Minister Doanh also asked the USDA to continue assisting the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in holding intensive training courses on catfish inspection program, and consider signing a bilateral trade agreement with Vietnam to offer incentives to investors and businesses in agriculture in particular.