August 3, 2009

A MYR320 million (US$91.1 million) fund has been set aside, including MYR160 million (US$45.5 million) from the Agrobank, to assist the Malaysian seafood industry's production standard meet the European Union (EU) standards.

Agriculture and Agro-based Industry deputy minister Datuk Rohani Abdul Karim said part of the funds was now awaiting approval from the Finance Ministry to be disbursed to the industry players to enable the quality of their products, like frozen fish, to be upgraded.

Rohani said her ministry was currently working with the Health Ministry to control the quality of marine and aquaculture products, for instance, in terms of cleanliness during the landing process and the kind of ice used to keep them.

She refuted claims by some companies involved in exporting seafood products that the funds did not reach the targets, besides the bureaucracy red tape in obtaining the funds.

She said loans from the Agrobank with interest rate at 6.1 percent were for the revolving capital to improve the quality of the seafood products and so far, MYR7 million had been given out to two local companies.

She also said that the EU has a big market potential for our seafood products, so we do not take lightly the standards set by it, adding that the market value of the products to EU was about MYR600 million and could reach MYR1 billion to MYR2 billion a year.

US$1 = MYR3.510 (Aug 3)