Before the information from January to May 15, 2019, Vietnam imported more than 23 tons of crayfish with frozen shells, the Department of Animal Health said, live crayfish are banned goods, and winter lobster refrigeration is still allowed to import.
About a week ago, live land lobster was the commodity that flooded our market with quite cheap prices. Only ranges from 200,000-400,000 VND / kg depending on the quantity taken more or less.
Immediately after that, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development sent an express dispatch to the agencies and departments stating that the crayfish, also known as red crayfish, is an exotic creature, omnivorous, living on the bottom crawling, preferring peach cave, nocturnal, has high resilience and adaptability.
This red crayfish species is not listed in the list of aquatic species allowed to trade in Vietnam and is identified as invasive alien. Accordingly, the trading and consumption of this shrimp species violates the provisions of the law on biodiversity and fisheries.
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| According to the Department of Animal Health, live crayfish is prohibited to import, while frozen land lobster is a product that is allowed to import. |
However, recently, according to the General Department of Customs, in 2018, there were about 46.2 tons of frozen whole cooked crawfish and frozen raw- boiled lobster imported into Vietnam with a turnover of 222. thousand USD.
From January to mid-May 2019, Vietnamese enterprises imported more than 23 tons of frozen crustaceans, a sudden increase compared to the whole year 2018 with a customs declaration value of more than $ 82,800. Cat Lai Port (Ho Chi Minh City) is the focal point importing mainly frozen and steamed lobster to Vietnam.
Calculated, frozen land lobster imported to Vietnam has a fairly cheap price, only at nearly 90,000 VND / kg.
Before the information above, many people wonder that, is land lobster a commodity banned from import or still allowed to be imported to Vietnam?
Talk to PV. VietNamNet, a representative of the Department of Animal Health (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) - the agency that permits the import of animals and animal products, said that live land lobsters (also known as freshwater lobsters) have Scientific name is Procambarus clarki , named in Appendix 2 Endangered invasive alien species enclosed with the Circular No. 35/2018 / TT-BTNMT dated December 28, 2018 of the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment. Stipulate criteria to identify and issue the List of invasive alien species.
Accordingly, the type of live crayfish is not listed in Appendix VIII List of aquatic species allowed to be traded in Vietnam. Thus, only live crayfish belong to invasive alien species banned from import and trade in our country.
"In cases where organizations or individuals wish to import live land lobsters, they must obtain an import permit from the Directorate of Fisheries", said the representative.
Also according to representatives of the Department of Animal Health, with frozen soil lobster products are goods not on the list of exotic aquatic animals.
However, according to the current regulations, frozen seafood products imported into Vietnam must meet the conditions specified in the Government's Decree No. 15/2018 / ND-CP dated February 2, 2018); At the same time, there must be a quarantine certificate issued by the competent authority of the exporting country for the shipment.
"In fact, frozen land lobster products registered for quarantine imported into Vietnam for food are not much, the source of goods is imported from China", the representative of the Department of Animal Health added.
Previously, the Lao Cai province authorities said In fact, the illegal import of lobster land in the last 5 months is increasing. Within 7 days, Lao Cai authorities arrested 7 cases of land lobster, the number of up to nearly 1 ton. Meanwhile, the control of smuggling shrimp imports at border areas is difficult.