The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has, for the past several years, been turning away shrimp imports suspected of being tainted with veterinary drug residues. These rejections are on the uptrend, according to the FDA's refusal data for January 2015.

In that month, 185 entry lines of fishery and seafood imports were rejected, with 58 refused due to alleged drug residues. The numbers indicated that the amount of rejections (based on use of banned antibiotics) in January 2015 alone is larger than the whole of 2012.

Moreover, an earlier data by the Southern Shrimp Alliance revealed that the number of shrimp rejections due to drug residues tallied at 42 in January 2011.

The FDA also reported the number of rejected shrimps at 139 during the second half of 2014, which was more than the twice the rejections in the first half, whose rejections totalled 64.

In that same year, FDA's rejection of shrimps, which amounted to 203, was higher than the three previous years.

Malaysia was among the affected countries for rejected shrimps due to drug residues; of the 58 turned away in January 2015, 42 came from that country. The number even beat the combined figure for rejections of Malaysian shrimps in both the whole of 2012 and 2013.

Other countries, whose shipment are rejected in January, included Vietnam at 15, and India, one.

Specifically, exporting companies affected are Ngoc Tri Seafood Joint Stock Company, Quoc Viet Seaproducts Processing, and Devi Fisheries Ltd. despite all shippers bearing certifications under the Best Aquaculture Practices programme (BAP).