On October 31, the working delegation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment led by Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien had a working session with Ca Mau province on combating illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
Working with Ca Mau province, the Deputy Minister requested the province to prepare sufficient documents and evidence to serve the inspection team of the European Commission (EC), affirming its determination to work with the whole country to remove the IUU "yellow card"; considering this a key and regular political task; promptly reporting to the Ministry on difficulties and obstacles to receive support in resolving them.
Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien noted: Ca Mau is a locality with a large fleet in the country, so the province's results in combating IUU fishing are very important for Vietnam's common goal of removing the yellow card. The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment highly appreciates the spirit of participation of the local political system, and at the same time recommends that the province continue to review and thoroughly trace violating fishing vessels, strengthen administrative discipline and ensure that fishing data is always updated and transparent.
Mr. Le Van Su - Vice Chairman of Ca Mau Provincial People's Committee - said that by October 30, 2025, the whole province has 5,230 fishing vessels in operation, of which 1,942 vessels with the largest length of 15 meters or more - the group that must install voyage monitoring equipment (VMS), currently 100% of vessels subject to installation have been completed. Cases of loss of signal are updated, traced and handled according to the digitalization process.
In the first 10 months of the year, Ca Mau province spent more than 7.5 billion VND to support subscription fees for cruise monitoring services for more than 7,000 fishing vessels. At the same time, a Resolution is being drafted to support new monitoring equipment, ensuring 24/7 connection, even when ships anchored at shore.
According to Mr. Le Van Su, Ca Mau has detected and handled more than 470 administrative violations in the fisheries sector with a total amount of more than 10 billion VND, including 43 violations of VMS disconnection. The entire incident was updated into management software to ensure transparent tracking.
The work of tracing the origin of aquatic products has also been effectively implemented. 100% of ships with a distance of 15 m or more electronically declare on the eCDT system when leaving and docking. The records of confirmation (SC) and certification (CC) of aquatic product origin are all issued in accordance with regulations, there are no errors that need to be explained. Of which, 805 CC certificates have been issued with a total volume of more than 11,400 tons, of which exports to the EU alone account for more than 7,880 tons.
