The European Commission’s Health and Food Safety Directorate audited on January 20-28th, 2020, Guatemala’s Food Safety Authority, part of the Agriculture and Livestock Ministry’s Vice-Ministry on Food Safety and Regulations (VISAR). It also audited different fishery and aquaculture companies to verify the compliance of all regulations and European legislation regarding food safety.

As a result of this auditing process, Guatemala was able to confirm that all fishery and aquaculture companies comply with all requirements and guarantee quality and food safety on their products according to the European Union. This, in turn, means Guatemala can continue exporting aquaculture products to the European market.

Successfully approving these type of auditing processes, that tend to be extremely thorough and severe, proves that Guatemala’s food safety authorities and the aquaculture and fishery industry work to fulfill the highest standards on food safety not only for the European market but for the rest of the world as well. Furthermore, shrimp farming companies have stand out for being highly innovative, sustainable and responsible. This has allowed the industry to be highly competitive; said Mrs. Maria Olga Menéndez, manager of AGEXPORT’s Aquaculture and Fishery Sector.

This was the sixth auditing processes that Guatemala handles since 1997 from the European Commission, having successfully approved all six of them.

Guatemalan exports of aquaculture and Fishery products add up to US$200 million per year.