What Vietnam Requires of Canadian Food, by Category

The registration and labelling pages on this site cover the two rules that stop most Canadian consignments: plant approval, and the expiry date. This page is the rest of it, category by category, read from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's export requirements for Vietnam.

Vietnam publishes its own requirements in Vietnamese and its legal repositories are not reachable from here, so CFIA's statement of them is the source, and CFIA notes that parts of it come from external sources and should be confirmed there.

Fresh produce: three chemicals Canada allows and Vietnam does not

Shipments of fresh fruit and vegetables grown and packed for Vietnam must comply with Circular No. 13/2011/TT-BNNPTNT of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, which prohibits 29 active chemical substances in agricultural products intended for the Vietnamese market.

Three of those 29 are currently registered for use in Canada: endosulfan, methamidophos and captan. CFIA puts the obligation on industry to ensure there are no residues of these on any produce destined for Vietnam.

That is not a limit to stay under but a prohibition on substances a Canadian grower may lawfully be using this season, on a crop entirely compliant at home, which makes it a decision taken in the field months before anyone talks about a container.

Everything else must meet Codex maximum residue limits, and where the Canadian limit is higher than the Codex figure, Codex governs. A residue result signed off against Health Canada's limits therefore does not establish compliance here.

Eligibility itself is species by species, based on a pest risk assessment carried out by Vietnam and the phytosanitary requirements that follow, so a species that has not been through that process has no route at all.

Dairy: the registration your importer renews, and the certificate nobody negotiated

Canada is authorised to export dairy products, and product already exported includes milk, evaporated milk, skim and whole milk powder, whey products, cheese, ice cream and products consisting of natural milk constituents. CFIA knows of no approved-establishment list; manufacturing must be under official CFIA oversight and licensed under the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations.

Infant formula is the exception, and a large one. Registration before importation is mandatory and is the responsibility of the importer established in Vietnam. The manufacturer supplies the material: product specifications, the ingredient list, a certificate of analysis, a GMP certificate, and a free sale certificate that must be legalised by the Vietnamese Embassy in Canada. CFIA notes the list is not exhaustive.

Two details there carry planning consequences. The registration is time-limited and must be renewed every five years, making it a recurring obligation held by somebody who is not you. And the free sale certificate has to pass through an embassy, which is a queue rather than a form.

The certificate is health certificate CFIA/ACIA 5813, signed by the CFIA official veterinarian and official inspector, with a manufacturer's declaration identifying products that match the shipment exactly. Note what CFIA says about it: Canada does not have a negotiated certificate with Vietnam, and 5813 is simply accepted.

Additional statements must be confirmed at national level by CFIA's food export section, not arranged locally. Vietnam does accept the certificate signed electronically, which is worth knowing when a sailing is close.

One item belongs on the customs side of the file, not the plant side: dairy is inspected at the point of entry, and a certificate of conformity must be issued to allow customs clearance. That is a Vietnamese document obtained after arrival, not one that travels with the goods.

Seafood: the certificate depends on where the fish swam, and where it goes next

Live product is eligible for Pacific oyster, Dungeness crab, American lobster and geoduck clam where authorised.

Non-live covers the following.

• All wild and cultured crustaceans and molluscs
• Finfish of non-susceptible species
• Finfish of susceptible species from waters declared free of World Organisation for Animal Health listed diseases
• Eviscerated fillets and steaks from susceptible species out of waters declared infected (the route for farmed Atlantic salmon, Pacific salmon and wild herring)
• Fish of any species for reprocessing and re-export
• Salted and frozen Pacific herring roe

The certificate follows from that classification, not from the product name:

Non-live fish, non-susceptible species or disease-free waters: Certificate of Origin and Hygiene (CFIA/ACIA 5003) plus the sanitary certificate for fish and fishery products (CFIA/ACIA 5633).

Eviscerated fillets and steaks from infected waters: CFIA/ACIA 5003 plus the aquatic animal health and sanitary certificate for chilled or frozen fillets and steaks (AQAH-1112).

Salted and frozen Pacific herring roe: CFIA/ACIA 5003 alone.

Live aquatic animals: CFIA/ACIA 5003 plus the Aquatic Animal Health Certificate (AQAH-1025). For live species other than Pacific oyster, the exporter must give the inspector copies of every required import licence or permit, plus supporting documentation such as an affidavit that the exporter believes the permit is valid, before CFIA will issue the certificate.

Re-export changes the paperwork again. Product going to Vietnam for further processing and onward export needs only CFIA/ACIA 5003, carrying the statement "This consignment is intended for further processing and re-export to a third country".

If the onward market is the European Union or a country applying EU requirements, the consignment also needs form CFIA/ACIA FA1023 and the establishment must appear on the DG-SANTE list.

CFIA's advice is worth repeating: if the intended use is uncertain and EU re-export is possible, source from an establishment on the EU list and request the additional attestations at the time of the certification request, because that is not a correction you can make afterwards.

Two points on listing. Only the final processing establishment needs to be approved and listed, and establishments exporting authorised live aquatic animals, along with cold stores that only hold product for export, need not be listed at all. CFIA also warns that approval times at the Department of Animal Health and Production are often lengthy and unpredictable, and that it cannot expedite an application.

Meat, in one paragraph

Pork, beef and poultry meat are eligible under an agreement Canada and Vietnam have reached on sanitary conditions. The plant approval, the thirty-working-day floor, the Form 9 application under Decree 15/2018/ND-CP and the Annex A, B and C certificates are on the registration page; the expiry date rule that turns a container around is on the labelling page.

The item to add here is testing: Vietnam applies its own maximum residue limits and microbiological requirements, product may be tested on arrival, and non-compliant product may be rejected.

The order to do this in

In produce, settle the chemistry first: endosulfan, methamidophos and captan are a growing-season decision and no documentation fixes a residue. In dairy, establish who holds the infant formula registration and when it next renews, and start the embassy legalisation early.

In seafood, classify the consignment before you quote it, because the water it came from and the country it goes to next both change the certificate. And in every category, ask for Vietnam's own residue and microbiological figures instead of assuming Canadian compliance travels.