The newly-licensed enterprises brought the number of Vietnamese seafood exporters permitted to ship products to Russia to 24.

Truong Dinh Hoe, General Secretary of Viet Nam’s Association of Seafood Exporters and Processors (VASEP), said, "The ten local enterprises approved to export to Russia is good news for the seafood sector and proves that Viet Nam will succeed in promoting a quality system, despite the difficulties early this year."

The 10 seafood processors include An Giang Frozen 9 factory, which is part of the An Giang Fisheries Export and Import JSC (Agifish), An Xuyen Ltd Co, Thuan Hung Ltd Co, Hiep Thanh Seafood JSC, Sao Ta Foods JSC, Trung Son Foods JSC, Hung Vuong JSC, QDV-Dong Thap Foods Ltd Co, Hai Thanh Ltd Co and Ninh Thuan Agricultural Product Export Co.

Earlier, between September 16-29, VPSS sent a delegation, the third of its kind this year, to inspect Vietnamese seafood processors. VPSS said they would continue to inspect processors for safety and sanitation.

In related news, seafood exports to the Japanese market recovered strongly. According to VASEP’s data, Viet Nam posted seafood exports totalling over US$525 million to date.

Hoe said that thanks to the rising demand of seafood products in Japan and local enterprises’ product quality promotion, market exports have reached new heights.

In order to further bolster Japanese exports by year’s end, Naviqaved ordered local enterprises to improve production in order to meet Japanese sanitation requirements.

The department stipulated that only enterprises that could ensure food hygiene safety would be permitted to export to Japan.

According to Hoe, the local seafood sector this year seemed more developed than last year, marked by a 13 per cent growth rate increase. Moreover, local enterprises succeeded in expanding to 135 countries and territories.

"At the end of the year, this sector could gain $3.6 billion in exports. Also, the quality system will improve in order to meet Russian and Australian standards, countries which have two of the strictest markets in terms of quality. It is enough to expect that by next year, Viet Nam seafood products will be known across more countries worldwide."

With this expectation, the enterprises need to put forth more effort to strengthen the sanitation procedures, Hoe stressed.