December 8, 2006

Thai shrimp farmers protest Australia's shrimp ban

Thai shrimpers yesterday protested against Australia's ban on shrimp imports in a letter to the Australian embassy in Thailand. 

Australia's ban comes as Biosecurity Australia is drafting an import risk analysis for prawns, which would propose measures, possibly a ban, on shipments. Comments on the draft can be submitted until February before the analysis is approved and takes effect.

Still, even before the agency's recommendations are made, the Australian government has chosen to ban all prawn and shrimp imports on Monday Dec 4 after detecting white spot syndrome virus in several shipments from Thailand, Apiradi Tantraporn, the director-general of the Thailand's Foreign Trade Department said.

Australia should only ban shipments from where the shipments originated and not shipments from the whole country, Tantraporn said. Worse yet, Thailand was not the only one affected, as shrimp imports from all countries are now banned.

Thai officials said the issue would be brought up at a forum on the Thailand-Australia free trade agreement next week.

Thailand's industry officials says this shows hypocrisy on its part and accused Australia of implementing protectionist measures to save its own shrimp industry.

The Thai shrimp farmers' clubs yesterday submitted their complaint to the Australian government through its embassy in Bangkok.

Thailand exported 10,421 tonnes of shrimp worth 2,401 million baht (US$67.4 million) in 2005

Shipments reached 16,223 tonnes in the first 10 months this year. Despite the larger shipments, revenue earned fell by 1.2 percent compared with the same period last year.