TPO – From January 10, 2026, the European Union (EU) will apply new regulations in controlling imported seafood. As one of the three major seafood suppliers to this market, the new regulations are expected to have a significant impact on Vietnamese businesses.
According to information from the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), the EU is implementing regulation 2023/2842 – a new control system for imported seafood, with the most important change being the complete transition from paper records to digital management and real-time traceability. This is one of the strongest EU adjustments in nearly 15 years to the global seafood supply chain.
Accordingly, the new regulation requires a much higher level of transparency in the catch certification system than before. The entire journey of the product must be clearly shown from catching or harvesting, purchasing, transporting, processing to exporting. Each batch of fishery products exported to the EU must have an electronic catch certificate with detailed data such as vessel number, fishing area, type of fishing gear, date of catch, yield, travel itinerary, intermediary units and processing plants.
In addition, the EU also switched to mandatory operation of the CATCH (Catch Certification Scheme) electronic management system on the TRACES platform – a common database serving to control the entire seafood import chain into this market. After the application date, paper records will no longer be accepted. Enterprises must submit electronic certificates and synchronize data with importers and competent management agencies.
According to the roadmap, from January 10, 2026, the core contents of Regulation 2023/2842 will officially take effect. From January 10, 2029, the traceability requirement will be extended to processed products such as canned fish, surimi, processed shrimp and mollusks, as well as seaweed. This means that there is not much time left for exporting countries, including Vietnam, to prepare.
“With seafood export turnover to the EU reaching billions of USD each year, when the new system is mandatory, Vietnamese businesses will have to convert from an internal traceability model to a data system throughout the entire chain, ensuring consistent information between fishing vessels, purchasing facilities, cold storage, processing plants and export records. This will significantly impact Vietnam’s seafood export supply chain,” said VASEP.
VASEP recommends that businesses proactively review the entire process of managing traceable data and minimize the use of distributed manual storage. Early application of global identification standards, information standardization and data digitization will help increase compatibility with the EU system and reduce risks during inspection.
In addition, businesses are advised to work early with importers in the EU to unify the electronic filing process, avoiding the situation of documents being piled up close to the mandatory deadline, which can easily lead to delays or failure to meet technical requirements. The preparation process also requires coordination with the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, industry associations and control agencies at fishing ports to ensure that catch certificates and value chain data are standardized right from the source stage.
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