August 9, 2006

EU rejecting more Bangladeshi shrimp shipments
 

The European Commission (EC) has rejected nearly 25 Bangladeshi shrimp consignments worth about Tk 500 million after detecting nitro furan, a harmful antibiotic, in prawn bodies over the past seven months, a financial newspaper in the country reported.

More than half of the country's shrimp exports goes to the EU.

Since Bangladesh does not have its own testing equipment, the EU requires shrimp shipments to be sent to Singapore for tests. However some exporters have flouted regulations, Trade Adviser to the EC delegation office in Bangladesh Zillul Hye Razi said.

The EC official has reiterated the need for the country to have its own equipment to detect the harmful chemical and more awareness from the farmers on EU rules. .

The EC found excessive levels of antibiotics mainly in sweet water prawns, an official of the ministry of fisheries and livestock said.

Nitro furan had been detected in the prawn shipments every month, the EC said. Moreover, 25 consignments had already been rejected this year, compared to 18 for the whole of last year. The significant increase in rejected consignments may hurt the confidence of EU buyers, the EC said.

The government recently opened a letter of credit (L/C) for importing nitro furan detecting machine.

Bangladesh exported a record Tk 32.50 billion worth of frozen shrimp and fish to EU countries in the last fiscal year.