Indian seafood to undergo EU mandatory testing

After the catch certificate issue resolved successfully some months ago, India's aquaculture exports to the EU have all been obliged to undergo testing for antibiotic residues since April 1, 2010.

Based on the Euro Zone reports on seafood imports, the EU Health Authority has recommended checking of at least 20% of the aquaculture products imported from India for various tests such as antibiotic residue and microorganisms, which could lead to huge delays in the Indian shipment reaching the end consumers and a fall in exports to the EU, officials at Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI) said.

According to the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) sources, aquaculture exports to the EU account for almost 32% in value of total seafood exports.

The EU has been tightening import norms based on environmental and health concerns. India was forced to implement a system to track all fishes exported to the EU with the latter insisting on catch certificates for all fish imports from January 2010.

The EU believes that the new regulation would help reduce illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. The Food and Veterinary Office (FVO), based in Brussels, is responsible for ensuring the safety of food imported into the EU and has the mandate to ban imports, which do not meet its standards. After its biennial audit of Indian seafood testing laboratories, the FVO said the Indian system of residue monitoring was structurally flawed and ineffective.

Also, concerns raised by previous audit teams (2003 and 2006) were not addressed by the Indian authorities. "Currently, only random sampling is done on exports consignments and compulsory checking of 20% of the volume of the consignments would lead to unnecessary delays and higher costs," Leena Nair, chairperson of the Marine Products Export Development Authority, said.