{"id":1458,"date":"2026-08-14T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vietnam-agri.com\/?post_type=industry_news&p=1458"},"modified":"2026-08-14T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T04:00:00","slug":"iuu-yellow-card","status":"publish","type":"industry_news","link":"https:\/\/vietnam-agri.com\/en\/industry_news\/iuu-yellow-card\/","title":{"rendered":"Quang Ngai province re-examines 4,863 fishing vessels, toward lifting the IUU yellow card"},"content":{"rendered":"

Quang Ngai province in central Vietnam is tightening its fishing-vessel management toward the lifting of the EU's yellow card. According to the local paper Nong nghiep & Moi truong on August 9, 2026, the province is re-examining three points, operating permits, inspection certificates and vessel-position monitoring, for 4,863 registered fishing vessels, and advancing the detection and punishment of violating vessels in parallel. This move, which sways whether exports of seafood to the EU are possible, is not someone else's concern for Japanese buyers who source Vietnamese seafood either, because it is happening upstream of the same current of traceability demands.<\/p>\n

97% of the 4,863 registered vessels have obtained operating permits<\/h2>\n

According to the report, Quang Ngai province has 4,863 registered fishing vessels. Of these, 4,699 hold operating permits, 97% of the total, with only 164 expired or unobtained. Vessels with a valid inspection certificate numbered 3,647 of 3,791 (96.2%), and among vessels 15 meters and over, 2,949 of 2,994 (98.5%) obtained proof of food-safety conditions.<\/p>\n

Looking at the figures alone, it is close to nearly achieved, but the remaining few percent sway the yellow card's assessment. The EU side's review looks not at an average score but at how far the holes that permit illegal fishing have been plugged. The province placing the 164 expired-permit vessels under management by name is nothing other than the work of making those holes visible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Item<\/th>\nAchievement status<\/th>\nRatio<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Obtaining operating permits<\/td>\n4,699 \/ 4,863 vessels<\/td>\n97%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Valid inspection certificate<\/td>\n3,647 \/ 3,791 vessels<\/td>\n96.2%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Proof of food-safety conditions (15 m and over)<\/td>\n2,949 \/ 2,994 vessels<\/td>\n98.5%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
VMS (vessel monitoring system) equipped (15 m and over)<\/td>\n2,982 \/ 2,994 vessels<\/td>\n99.6%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Quang Ngai province statistics. Ratios are as reported.<\/p>\n

VMS equipment covers 99.6% of vessels 15 meters and over; 100 vessels caught with signal loss<\/h2>\n

Equipping with VMS (Vessel Monitoring System), which tracks a vessel's position by satellite, has advanced to 2,982 of 2,994 vessels 15 meters and over, 99.6%. The 12 unequipped vessels are also tracked individually. This far is a matter of installation, but what the EU truly looks at is operation after it is installed.<\/p>\n

In Quang Ngai province, from January to August 3, 2026, 100 vessels were detected whose VMS signal was lost for six hours or more or ten days or more. Ten vessels crossed permitted waters, of which four were punished, two cases were dropped, and four are being processed, it is said. Even with the equipment on board, cutting the power breaks off tracking. Publicizing detection and punishment as a set has the aim of showing a stance of not ending at merely having it installed.<\/p>\n

Record management of landings is also advancing. Port entries since the start of the year totaled 26,999 voyages, of which 15,994 were inspected, and landings reached 21,071 tonnes. A system that captures at port which vessel caught what, when and where becomes the backing for catch certificates. Nguyen Duc Binh, deputy director of the provincial agriculture and environment department, referred to the detection of the 100 signal-loss vessels, and deputy provincial chairman Do Tam Hien is reported to have stressed strict thoroughgoing compliance toward lifting the yellow card.<\/p>\n

The EU's yellow card is a corrective warning from October 2017<\/h2>\n

IUU fishing is the collective term for Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fishing, and the EU has a system that restricts seafood imports from countries involved in it. In October 2017 the EU issued Vietnam a yellow card (a corrective warning). This is a warning that 'if not improved, it will be raised to an import ban, that is, a red card,' and since then Vietnam has continued to respond on three pillars: vessel registration, VMS and catch certification.<\/p>\n

Nationwide, a fishing-vessel database managing more than 80,300 vessels has been put in place, and the VMS equipment rate for vessels 15 meters and over has reached 99.6%. The Vietnamese government has set lifting the yellow card by the end of 2026 as its goal. Quang Ngai province's effort can be called a microcosm of this national goal brought down to the port front.<\/p>\n

Traceability demands reaching Japanese buyers<\/h2>\n

From here is the Japanese side's story. Vietnam's seafood export value is on the scale of about US$9 billion a year, and Japan is a major destination alongside the United States and the EU. The yellow card is an EU-directed system, but the catch-certification scheme arranged there takes effect directly in trade bound for Japan as well.<\/p>\n

In December 2022 Japan enacted the Act on Ensuring the Proper Domestic Distribution of Specified Aquatic Animals and Plants (the Aquatic Distribution Adequacy Act). At import, mackerel, Pacific saury, Japanese sardine and squid cannot be imported without a certificate issued by a foreign government or the like showing they were lawfully caught. Because squid also enters Japan from Vietnam, this regulation directly applies. In addition, the private traceability standards that major retailers and foodservice demand are further widening their target species. A producing region with catch certification in place for the EU becomes a region that can more easily meet Japan's procurement requirements; yellow-card compliance connects directly to lifting trade eligibility for Japan.<\/p>\n

How to read Quang Ngai's move in procurement practice<\/h2>\n

There are three points to grasp from the buyer's perspective. First, in regional selection, you should confirm the track record of detection and punishment of signal loss and boundary crossing rather than the VMS equipment rate. A port with a high equipment rate but lax operation leaves risk. That Quang Ngai province publicizes even the 100 detected vessels and the number of punishments is, rather, evidence that management is functioning.<\/p>\n

Second, team up with processors and exporters that can handle catch certification. Because port landing records (Quang Ngai province inspected 15,994 voyages since the start of the year) become the starting point of a certificate, the more a business is tied to those records, the faster its documentation for Japan. Third, understand that lifting the yellow card is not a theme that ends once achieved but one with continuing maintenance costs. A region that can keep working down the remaining few percent is precisely the one that is stable as a long-term sourcing partner. Quang Ngai province's management of the remainder, the 164 and the 12 vessels, directly reflects a region's capability.<\/p>\n

Sources<\/h2>\n