After almost two years’ work between the Russian Veterinary Service (Rosselkhoznadzor) and the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Service of Chile (SERNAPESCA), the electronic certification for seafood exports to the Eurasian market entered its final stage of development.
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This was reported in St. Petersburg by SERNAPESCA national director Jose Miguel Burgos, in the framework of the International Economic Forum, which took place last week in that city.
Burgos recalled that this initiative began in June 2014 during the meeting of the Russian-Chilean Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation. At that time, the Russian Veterinary Service signed a cooperation agreement on electronic certification for livestock and fishery products with the Agricultural and Livestock Service (SAG) and SERNAPESCA.
On the working board created to carry out this project, it was agreed that the implementation would be by product type, for which work began with the certificates of pork from Chile, issued by the SAG.
Simultaneously, SERNAPESCA began working on the development and strengthening of its SISCOMEX platform through which it will issue its electronic certification.
In April, the three institutions agreed that after the implementation of the electronic certification for shipments of pork, the next step would be to incorporate in this system the certificates issued by SERNAPESCA for salmon, which will be sent to SAG so that from they could be sent to the Rosselkhoznadzor through a single platform.
SERNAPESCA national director explained that this entity has already submitted a proposal for electronic certification to its Russian counterpart, which once accepted will allow the national salmon industry that exports to the Eurasian Economic Union to migrate to the new system and derive all the certificates under the electronic certification xml standard.
"This would significantly reduce the duration of the certification process, and would allow direct communication between the authorities, raising safety standards of this procedure, which is extremely sensitive given the recent cases of document forgery we have known in the local press, which despite representing a very small percentage within the huge volume of shipments we certify for the whole world, they can also affect the image of our country as a first class food exporter and with the highest health standards," Burgos expressed.
Regarding the SISCOMEX platform for electronic certification, the Chilean authorities explained that there are five manufacturing companies using this platform, while ten other salmon exporters are in the process of incorporating it in the short term.
Last year 69,600 tonnes of seafood were exported to Russia, of which more than 63,000 tonnes corresponded to salmon shipments (Atlantic salmon mainly), all for a value amounting to over USD 300 million. ■