October 31, 2013

Honduras resumes fresh shrimp exports to Mexico

Honduras' Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (SAG) signed a ministerial agreement that will reactivate fresh shrimp exports to the Mexican market.

One of the main objectives of the Government is to prevent early mortality disease (EMS) in shrimp from spreading to Honduras.

"We are signing this ministerial agreement that amends fresh shrimp export closure to Mexico, which will make it possible to do it with a sanitary measure protocol that reduces the risk of contamination and prevents the disease from entering the country," explained SAG head, Jacobo Regalado.

According to the secretary, the shrimp sector generates 30,000 direct jobs in Honduras, and exports are expected to reach a value of HNL4,000 million (US$192.3 million). He added that only fresh shrimp exports to the Mexican market could generate HNL300 million (US$14.4 million).

Mexico's ambassador in Honduras, Victor Hugo Morales, commented that the agreement signed with the Government of Honduras is a result of working together with the authorities of the SAG.

"We celebrate the actions that are being taken to conduct trade with Mexico again and strengthen bilateral trade relations that we have with Honduras," he pointed out.

It generated US$927 million in foreign currency in 2012 "as part of the bilateral trade and the trend is for it to increase by 15%, making it possible to strengthen and to turn Mexico into an important trading partner for this country," stated Morales.

Last May, as a member of the International Regional Organisation for Agricultural Health (Oirsa), Honduras hosted the first Regional Emergency Drill for Early Mortality Syndrome or Acute Hepatopancreatic Necrosis Syndrome (Ems/Ahpns). The event was attended by members of the public, private and academic sectors in regions of Central America, Mexico and Dominican Republic.

Honduras was the first Central American nation to take sanitary measures to protect the domestic shrimp industry. Thus, SAG issued the Ministerial Agreement 331-2013, which restricted the entry of shrimp in all its presentations and all the inputs involved in the production chain.

The agreement now signed by both governments to resume exports of fresh shrimp from Honduras to Mexico establishes phytosanitary measures for shipments of fresh shrimp, which must be verified in the land customs, Notimex informed.