Shrimp export to EU may face setback
Stringent testing procedure imposed

Monira Munni

Bangladesh's shrimps being exported to its largest market in EU countries will now undergo a stringent testing procedure. This situation has arisen mainly due to the serious shortcomings of testing facilities available in the country, the industry sources said Saturday.

"The EU will test at least 20 per cent of the cargoes heading to its ports from Bangladesh from July 15," a statement issued by the EU said.

The EU has taken the decision due to the serious shortcomings reported by a Food and Veterinary Office (FVO) mission which visited Bangladesh in January 2010. The FVO found insufficient improvements in laboratory capacity here since 2008 for detecting some pharmacologically active substances in shrimps in Bangladesh, the statement said.

Bangladesh ships around half billion dollars worth of shrimp every year, making it the country's third largest export item. The industry employs more than a million people mainly in the country's impoverished southwestern coastal districts.

The EU had earlier tested shrimp consignment from Bangladesh at random - a standard being followed all over the world. Most other fish exporting nations including Vietnam and Thailand also undergo similar testing procedure.

"It is a big setback for our shrimp industry," said Maqsudur Rahman, vice president of the Bangladesh Frozen Food Exporters Association, the industrial grouping that represents the industry.

"The industry is going through a critical phase due to lack of proper steps by the government in time," he said.

The EU expressed its suspicion about our testing procedure saying that Bangladesh should increase its laboratory facilities as it cannot carry out all required test with its present capacity.

"We requested the concerned authorities repeatedly to examine our products in other laboratories of the country but they hardly paid any heed," Mr Rahman said.

"Our exports would be unduly delayed due to the tough testing measures. The EU importers will also punish us by offering cheaper rates. And there will be many hidden setbacks that we have not foreseen yet," he said.

Exporters said the EU decision follows inspection of Bangladeshi shrimp production and processing standards by a team of its EVO in January.

The team visited the country's fish and animal feed and hatchery projects for nearly two weeks and expressed its dissatisfaction over quality control in the farms and reliability of laboratory test report.

The country also fared badly in the authorities' monitoring of food and supplements used by producers, poor hygiene standards of its workforce and drug issues.

"The harsh new testing measure is a penalty we are paying due to the detection of Nitrofuran in our earlier consignments," an exporter said.

"We had informed the government that any deviation from the standards could lead to a bad report by the team and a possible ban on Bangladeshi shrimp in the EU countries," he said.

The latest setback adds more woes to the country's export industry already reeling under the global recession.

"We will face serious problems because buyers of other markets will take the advantage of the problem of the large market," he said.

In June 2009 Bangladesh had voluntarily banned export of fresh water prawn, one of 12 species of shrimps farmed in the country, after cancer-causing antibiotic, Nitrofuran, had been found in more than 50 EU-bound consignments.

Although exports of the particular species resumed in January this year, the Nitrofuran issue shed some negative light on the overall health and hygiene standards practised in the country's shrimp industry.