MFDS Signs Preliminary Safety Management Hygiene Agreement with Argentina

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety announced on the 11th that it signed the "Korea-Argentina Seafood Hygiene Agreement" with the National Food Safety and Quality Service of Argentina (SENASA) on the 10th, allowing the export of products that have undergone prior safety management by the Argentine government.

The main contents include hygiene and safety management by the government agency (National Food Safety and Quality Service of Argentina) at local manufacturing facilities in the exporting country, issuance of hygiene certificates by the exporting country, and post-measures in case of non-compliance. According to the agreement, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety registers local seafood manufacturers hygienically managed from the production stage as notified by the Argentine government, and only allows imports of seafood from registered companies. Additionally, it has made it mandatory to attach an export hygiene certificate from the exporting country for each import, detailing the product name, quantity/weight, name of the manufacturing facility, and registration number. If non-compliance is found during customs inspection of imported seafood, the Ministry will temporarily suspend imports and receive the cause investigation results from the Argentine government, review the results, and then lift the import suspension.

Hongeo Samhap

Approximately 8,000 tons of seafood are imported annually from Argentina. Frozen squid, skate, and stingray are imported. As of last year, Argentine skate accounted for the largest share (1st place, 33.8%) of skate imports into Korea.

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety is expanding the signing of "Seafood Hygiene Agreements" with counterpart exporting country governments to import seafood safely managed from the local production stage. The number of countries that have signed seafood hygiene agreements with Korea has increased to 11. These 11 countries are China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Russia, Ecuador, Chile, Norway, the Philippines, Peru, and Argentina. The volume imported from agreement countries accounts for 81% of the total seafood imports (approximately 1.2 million tons as of 2022).