PRESENTATION OF COUNTRY PROGRESS REPORT

Cambodia

8. Mr Bun Chantrea, the KPL (Key Project Leader) of Cambodia, presented on their country’s progress. It was reported that the status of traceability system implementation in Cambodia was still pending.

9. Mr Bun reported that the farmers tend to follow after the practices of other farmers which made the country’s implementation a challenge, and that the traditional methods of local processing practiced by the farmers were also seen as a challenge for tracing record. It was reported that poor quality fish products were due to the poor quality of fish feeds, and there was a heavy reliance on the neighbouring countries for shrimp post larvae due to poor local production capacity and quality, as well as limited human resources.

It was also informed that Cambodia would need more time to build up on her capability through training to establish the knowledge of the farmers or workers on GAP (Good Aquaculture Practices) and traceability.

10. Mr Bun informed the meeting that the GAP guidelines have been enacted by the Cambodian Government in October 2012.

11. Mr Bun also informed that the drafting of traceability guidelines by Fisheries Committee/

Administration is in progress and is pending for government endorsement. The Cambodian Government also aims to adopt strategies and extension with regards to Traceability of aquacultured products for GAP / HACCP.

12. Upon the enquiry by Philippines on how the Cambodian government tracks aquaculture products along supply chain for product export to USA, Mr Bun updated that they worked closely with CAM Control (Cambodia Import-Export Inspection and Fraud Repression Department) of Department of Commerce, to apply for the certification which meets the standards when exporting to other countries.

13. Upon the enquiry by Chief of MFRD Programmes on the expected challenges faced when enforcing GAP on small and fragmented farms, Mr Bun informed that there is a challenge of maintaining the quality of seed and feed based on market demand.

Indonesia

14. Dr Reza Shah Pahlevi, KPL of Indonesia, presented on his country’s progress update, and reported that the implementation of traceability system is currently in progress.

15. He mentioned that the main challenges and issues that Indonesia are facing would be the numerous parties along the fish supply chain and the limited knowledge of these parties to assess fishery product quality and traceability to meet international standards / requirements for export. He reported that along the fish supply chain, the middlemen tend to collect and pool small amounts of fish products from various fish farmers, and in turn, posed as a challenge for implementing traceability.

16. Dr Reza informed that some of the national activities that have been initiated are namely 1) sampling map where each province of Indonesia is tagged with a code number, and 2) conduct of training workshops with regards to quality and safety of fishery products. He also added that the Indonesian government is also looking at the development of central software at Jakarta for the consolidation of Traceability data from all provinces as a part of the future activity.

17. Upon the enquiry by Chief of MFRD Programmes on the government initiatives on the implementation of traceability, Dr Reza informed that traceability implementation in Indonesia is currently on a voluntary basis. The Indonesian government is also exploring on more workshops and trainings to be conducted for the aquaculture industry for knowledge improvement. However, he added that it may be challenging for them to build up on laboratory testing capability for quality assurance purpose.

18. Upon the enquiry by Philippines on the number of laboratories currently Indonesia has and are being audited upon by the government, Dr Reza replied that to date, the number of accredited laboratories are estimated to be 3 from the private sector, and 7 government laboratories.

However, with this number of laboratories, it is still insufficient to support the current demand of samples to be analysed. He informed that auditing of the laboratories is done on a regular basis by the Agency of Quarantine and Food Safety and Quality Control.

Lao PDR

19. Mr Oudone Khounsavan presented on Lao’s country progress. He informed that the status of traceability implementation in Lao was still pending.

20. Mr Oudone updated that the main challenge that Lao is facing is that the aquaculture sector is not fully developed and that there is currently no specific regulation on traceability of aquaculture products. He added that there it is a paramount need to develop specific regulation arising from the recent participation in WTO and ASEAN community. He also informed that currently Lao government are imposing permit registration of fish farm under household and commercial level.

21. Mr Oudone informed that for future activities and directions, they have plans to develop technical standards on food safety for aquaculture products to supply domestic market and future exports, and the building of knowledge and technical capacity on traceability systems. is necessary.

22. Upon the enquiry by Myanmar on the method of checking Formalin during the laboratory inspection, Mr Oudone replied that they are currently analysing the fish feed only and they are usually sent to control laboratory for testing. Upon queried by MFRD with regards to the future activities on food safety and traceability issues by the Lao government, Mr Oudone informed that the Lao government is currently drafting out the project proposal for the mentioned future activities as well as the annual budget allocation.

Malaysia

23. Mr Mohd. Ghazali bin Abdul Manap presented Malaysia’s country progress on behalf of KPL of Malaysia, Mr Ismail, as he was unable to attend the mid-term review meeting. It was reported that the status of traceability implementation in Malaysia is currently in progress.

24. Mr Mohd. Ghazali informed that traceability programme had been introduced as part of the GAP at farm level since 2004 in Malaysia.

However, GAP implementation is currently on a voluntary basis. The traceability form (BP-DJ01) is needed to be filled as part of the export requirements for shrimp products since year 2011.

25. With regards to the challenges and issues

middlemen and collectors that are involved and market secrecy was commonly seen for source information protection. In order to address to the current situation, future plans will include the mandatory filing of traceability form for fishery products, as well as the promotion of the adoption of inland fisheries regulations to the state government of Malaysia though discussion with state legal advisor. Mr Mohd. Ghazali also informed that some national measures to strengthen the traceability system can be done through internal audits annually, as well as the provision of standard guidelines in SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) for traceability forms usage.

26. With regards to the enquiry made by Thailand on the transparency of inventory management for the traceability system, Mr. Mohd. Ghazali mentioned that farmers would need to possess information of their buyers and were required to fill in the necessary information into the traceability form.

Myanmar

27. Mrs Aye Aye Thein, KPL of Myanmar presented on Myanmar’s country progress on the status of traceability implementation in Myanmar.

28. Mrs Aye Aye Thein informed that Myanmar has been implementing traceability systems as well as recall procedures in the aquaculture farms and for their exports respectively. For foreign fishing vessels, registration and licensing was reported to be required as a form of traceability system. Mrs Aye Aye Thein also informed that there is also currently a GAP standard in place for fish and shrimp farms.

29. With regards to the challenges and issues faced by Myanmar, it was reported that records such as water quality monitoring data, feed data, as well as the data of veterinary drugs and chemicals usages for aquaculture purpose are currently still weakness. She added that there is certainly a room for improvement to increase the knowledge and awareness of the GAP compliances and guidelines. Traceability was also reported to be challenging especially in the situation of pooling or mixing of shrimps from various farms at the central market.

30. In order to address to the reported issues, Mrs Aye Aye Thein mentioned that 1549.2 hectares of farms have to be certified for GAP, and the Fry Movement Document (FMD) applied. She also added that a total of 13 processing plants were approved by the EU and implementation of HACCP was reported.

31. Mrs Aye Aye Thein added that there is a need to improve all farms and hatcheries to at least meeting the guidelines of GAP in future. On top of that, she mentioned that there are also on- going measures for the monitoring of veterinary drug residues for aquaculture products exporting to EU.

Philippines

32. Ms Somga, Sonia Sebastian, KPL of the Philippines presented on the country progress of Philippines. It was reported that the implementation of traceability in Philippines is in progress.

33. Ms Somga updated that the implementation of traceability is very much dependant on the intended market, and that currently all documentations are paper-based. She added that the level of traceability varies in every stage of the supply chain as well as the size of the establishments. The government of Philippines is currently drafting the Fisheries Administrative Order on Inspection and Certification. She further mentioned that GAP is currently on a voluntary basis.

34. The meeting was informed that national activity such as registration programme for the aquaculture farms is being implemented by BFAR (Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources) based on GAP (Good Aquaculture Practice) to achieve hygiene and traceability requirements. The Philippine GAP was also reported to be developed in 2010 through the assistance of the EU Trade Related Technical Assistance. Trainings on GAP implementation would also be conducted for the extension officers as well as farmers, where the schedule of training of extension officers is planned to be on the 1st quarter in year 2013.

35. With regards to the enquiry made by Indonesia on the presence of antibiotics in feed and the detection method, Ms Somga replied that once there is any antibiotic detection, the government of Philippines will ensure the destruction and corrective actions will be taken against the affected batch of feed. However, since 2007 there have been no problems encountered thus far. She also added that antibiotics residue analysis will only be conducted on at the adult shrimp fry in hatcheries.

Singapore

36. Mr Tan Yit Wee, participant of Singapore, updated on Singapore’s implementation progress and it was noted that the implementation of traceability

37. Mr Tan informed that there is currently on-going implementation of Good Farm Management Practice in the fish farms, with the necessary protocol documentation and record keeping in place. He mentioned that currently the usage of dried pellet feeds are being encouraged as its source can be traced upon imported into Singapore by AVA (Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore).

38. With regards to the challenges and issues faced by Singapore’s small aquaculture producers, Mr Tan updated that the cost of implementation of traceability is rather high; hence changing the mindsets of farmers on implementation cost, introduction of better feed quality, and benefits of record keeping is also seen as a challenge.

As such, the national activity includes the provision of assistance in the implementation of traceability in the marine fish hatchery.

39. Mr Tan mentioned that plans are made to send officers for training on GAP as GAP is currently still in pipeline. He further added that currently a few farms have already expressed interest in the GAP and traceability scheme.

Thailand

40. Mr Somboon Laoprasert, KPL of Thailand reported on the country progress of Thailand.

It was noted in the meeting that the status of implementation is in progress.

41. Mr Laoprasert informed that there had been implementation of manual traceability since year 2002. He updated on the strategies of the government of Thailand to control the farms, hatcheries as well as aquatic feeds by forms of certification and licensing programmes. It was noted that there had been implementation of processing plants control by means of certifications, inspections, product surveillance program, as well as assurance of product quality and safety compliance in lined with the criteria of Department of Fisheries (DOF) and importing countries.

42. With regards to the national activities and direction, Mr Laoprasert updated that Thailand is currently in the midst of implementation of computerised traceability system for shrimp along the supply chain, and further equipped that the inputs would be manually recorded (subjected to approval) into the system by the users. Constant improvements could be done to the system with the consultation of traceability

Viet Nam

43. Ms Nguyen Thi Minh, KPL of Viet Nam presented on the country progress of Viet Nam. It was reported that the status of implementation is in progress.

44. Ms Nguyen informed that both aquaculture farms and factories in Viet Nam are required to keep records for traceability purpose and the recall system will be reviewed at least once per year.

45. With regards to the challenges and issues faced, Ms Nguyen updated that implementation of traceability was observed to be difficult for farms that are small in scale. They are often observed to provide inaccurate records and are unsynchronised. Measures like increasing famer’s awareness about rights and obligations, as well as providing more training and technical support for extension officers who are implementing traceability were implemented in order to address these challenges.

46. Ms Nguyen updated that the future directions and activities would be targeted at the continuation of traceability implementation as well as regulation compliance of food law and requirements from import countries. She further informed that more training would be rendered to the farmers while encouraging them to apply to GAP certification.

47. To Chief of MFRD Programmes enquiry on the statement “Implementation in processing plants that has been reviewed 1 time per year” in the report, Ms Nguyen clarified that regulation compliance would be reviewed at least once per year for facilities with a traceability system in place with regards to the circular No. 03/2011/

TT-BNNPTNT.

V. DISCUSSION ON 2ND ON-SITE TRAINING