A set of stringent aquaculture measures will take effect Monday to substantially improve the safety and quality of China's farmed aquatic products, the Ministry of Agriculture announced at the weekend.

The Management Regulations Regarding Aquaculture Quality and Safety take a hard look at every aspect of fish farming from the quality of water and aquatic seeds to feeds, technology, fish drugs and marketing, said Zhang Hecheng, vice-director of the ministry's Fisheries Bureau.

The statute says fish farmers must use pollution-free water in line with the parameters the ministry has specified in its "pollution-free food action plan."

This, along with an emphasis on the use of disease-free aquatic seeds, is aimed at preventing outbreak of diseases among fish, Zhang said.

Last year, the aquaculture sector registered 185 varieties of fish diseases, which resulted in a loss of 14.1 billion yuan (US$1.7 billion), Fisheries Bureau statistics show.

The regulations stipulate that fish farms must have permits, keep daily logs on aquaculture production and drug use, and have their products examined and labeled before selling them.

The regulations are countermeasures against deficiencies in the country's aquaculture quality control regime.

They are also being introduced to satisfy the ever carping demands of consumers and importers, Zhang said.

By implementing the regulations to the letter, the bureau expects China's aquatic products can meet the ever demanding quality standards of some importing nations, Liu said.

(China Daily September 1, 2003)