The working delegation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment worked with Thanh Hoa province on combating IUU fishing.

On the morning of November 6, a working delegation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment (MARD) led by Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien, Deputy Head of the National Steering Committee on combating illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, worked with the People's Committee of Thanh Hoa province on combating IUU fishing.

Receiving and working with the delegation were comrade Cao Van Cuong, Provincial Party Committee member, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; representatives of leaders of departments, branches, functional forces and coastal localities of the province.

Comrade Cao Van Cuong, Provincial Party Committee member, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee received and worked with the working delegation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment .

According to the report of the Department of Agriculture and Environment, Thanh Hoa province currently has 6,243 fishing vessels, of which 1,014/1,014 offshore fishing vessels have installed vessel monitoring equipment (VMS), reaching 100%.

From the beginning of 2025 up to now, the province's total aquatic product output has reached more than 117,515 tons, reaching 83.9% of the plan.

The province’s anti-IUU fishing work has achieved many positive results. 100% of fishing vessels have completed registration, inspection, marking, number plates and entered into the National Fisheries Data System Vnfishbase. The whole province has no fishing vessels violating foreign waters to exploit aquatic products.

Leaders of the Department of Agriculture and Environment reported on the results of work to combat IUU fishing.

The rate of inspection, issuance of technical safety certificates, and certificates of establishments meeting food safety conditions reached from 96.4% to 98.7%. The province has 4 fishing ports that have been announced to open, including Hoa Loc, Lach Hoi, Lang Bang and Hai Chau; of which, 3 fishing ports are designated to meet the conditions for confirmation and certification of aquatic product origin. Since the beginning of the year, about 24,139 tons of aquatic products have been unloaded through the ports; 31 certificates of aquatic product origin have been issued.

The management and control of fishing vessels, monitoring of journeys, and handling of violations have been strengthened, contributing to deterring and preventing violations. From the beginning of 2025 to November 5, the number of cases of violations punished was 217, the total amount of fines was more than 2.91 billion VND, 100% of fishing vessels punished for administrative violations were updated in the database...

In addition, the province's anti-IUU fishing work still has some shortcomings, such as: 81 fishing vessels are not qualified to operate, the situation of fishing vessels losing connection to VMS at sea for more than the allowed time still occurs; the work of inspection, control and monitoring of aquatic product output through ports is still limited; the scale and number of designated ports do not meet the needs of all fishing vessels in the province to arrive and leave the port to unload products; fishing infrastructure has been invested in but is not synchronized, not meeting the recommendations of the EC.

Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Cao Van Cuong spoke at the meeting.

Speaking at the meeting, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Cao Van Cuong said that recently, Thanh Hoa province has mobilized the entire political system to join in implementing the fight against IUU fishing.

He requested the Department of Agriculture and Environment to quickly establish a working group, coordinate with localities and relevant units to review and completely handle all backlogs of VMS disconnection before November 15, 2025. Commune and ward authorities should strengthen the management of aquatic product output through fishing ports and wharves under local management and have monthly reports to update the national fisheries database.

The Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee requested the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to soon develop software and upgrade the infrastructure of the fishing vessel monitoring system to ensure synchronization between the border guards, police and the agricultural sector, contributing to better control of fishing vessels and aquatic product output. At the same time, speed up the implementation of the project to upgrade the fishing port, the Lach Hoi storm shelter anchorage area and the project to upgrade the Lach Bang fishing port invested by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Environment Phung Duc Tien concluded the working session.

Concluding the working session, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Environment Phung Duc Tien emphasized that Thanh Hoa province is one of the localities with developed agriculture, contributing greatly to the socio-economic development of the province and the whole country. The province has made many efforts in combating IUU fishing, thereby creating many positive changes, but there are still some points that have not met the requirements according to the EC's recommendations.

Therefore, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Environment requested the province to direct communes and wards to focus on strictly controlling fishing fleets, ensuring all fishing vessels have valid licenses and VMS equipment operates regularly; and tighten the process of confirming and certifying the origin of aquatic products at fishing ports.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Environment Phung Duc Tien requested the province to review and quickly complete the dossier and report to the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment on the announcement of opening ports to have more designated fishing ports for offshore fishing vessels to conveniently enter and exit the port and have enough conditions to confirm the origin of exploited aquatic products.

In particular, the province needs to prepare full documents and evidence to serve the inspection team of the European Commission (EC), affirming the determination to work with the whole country to remove the IUU "yellow card"; consider this a key and regular political task; promptly report to the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment on difficulties and problems to receive support to resolve them.

Le Hoa

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/doan-cong-tac-bo-nong-nghiep-va-moi-truong-lam-viec-voi-tinh-thanh-hoa-ve-chong-khai-thac-iuu-267812.htm