January 12, 2010

Bangladesh resumes shrimp export to EU

The export of freshwater shrimp, Bangladesh's second-biggest foreign currency earner, to the EU resumes Monday (Jan 11) after six months suspension since last June following a perceived act of disservice.

On detection of health-hazardous antibiotic-nitrofuran in the exported shrimps in January 2009, over 50 consignments of lobsters bound for Europe were cancelled by the importing agencies. As a result, export of the frozen shrimps had remained suspended since last June-creating a crisis in the sector.

The government decided on resumption of the export of this important item of frozen foods after receiving the green signal from the EU, sources said.

Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association sources said some consignments of shrimp were sent back to the country from the EU after the detection of nitrofuran in the shrimp.

In this situation, the government had suspended the shrimp export to the EU for six months on request from the association to tackle the exigencies.

The move of halting export came as a preemptive measure to avoid any sanctions by the EU authority, said one source.

Meanwhile, the government informed the EU that Bangladesh would resume the shrimp export as it has taken all measures to make shrimp nitrofuran-free.

Now, Tk300 crore (US$43.4 million) worth of freshwater shrimps have been prepared here for export.

The export earning from shrimp was Tk414.34 crore in the last fiscal year, of which Tk300 crore came from the EU domain.