July 17, 2006

 

Government's nonchalance hinders Bangladesh's aquaculture sector

 

 

Bangladesh's government nonchalance about its aquaculture industry, the second largest export revenue earner for the country, could hurt plans for Vision 2008, a plan to bring in US1.5 billion a year from its frozen food sector by 2008.

 

"Vision 2008' was a plan laid down by the Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association (BFFEA).

 

A record US$470 million was earned last fiscal (2005-2006) for the frozen foods industry, much ahead of the target that was set at US$420 million.

 

According to the BFFEA, the 'Vision 2008' emphasizes improvements to existing lab facilities, training of technicians, introduction of an internationally accepted certification and reference laboratory to test and certify the product quality.

 

Exporters are taking steps to increase shrimp production through optimum utilisation of processing capacity while actively seeking new markets.

 

However, the European Commission (EC), Bangladesh's largest frozen food export market, has threatened to stop import of frozen shrimp and fish from the country if it fails to comply with the European Union (EU) food safety directives by August this year. The commission had urged the Secretary of the Fisheries and Livestock Ministry to expedite quality monitoring measures as the EU is likely to ban frozen shrimp and fish exports from Bangladesh if the country is unable to meet their standards.

 

The EU team that visited Bangladesh in November expressed disappointment in the fact that Bangladesh laboratories do not even have nitro-furan testing equipment when they have been issuing 'nitro-furan free certificates' for shrimp consignments.

 

BFFEA's proposal to buy the equipment at a cost of nearly US$ 400,000 was put on the backburner by the government and no action has been taken so far.

 

The EU also found lack of modern equipment, competent authorities and absence of central monitoring units. The EU team also stressed the need to improve the performance of the laboratories and the reliability of their results.

 

Currently, out of 130 shrimp processing plants, the EU had approved 58 for shipping seafood to its markets. EU had slapped a ban on the frozen shrimp export from July- February in 1997-98 fiscal for not following their food safety directives.

 

Meanwhile, exporters fear business would fall as much as 30 percent as the government takes its time to conduct lengthy quality control certification procedures on shrimp shipments waiting to be shipped out. 

 

Due to favourable weather, shrimp production has improved significantly.  Although Bangladeshs shrimps enjoy a favourable market in the EU, its government has yet to offer any infrastructure to encourage the industry.

 

Frozen foods exporters said it typically takes a maximum of five days to examine each consignment, but government labs are now taking 20 to 25 days for each. Thus, many consignments could not be shipped out due to the absence of quality control certificates.

 

The labs for monitoring fish quality in the country are not well equipped and sometimes exporters were directed to use the labs of shrimp exporting companies. Scarcity of manpower and machinery are also hindering shrimp operations in peak season.

 

Pleas for the governments to use the better equipped labs of exporters to issue quality-monitoring certificates have fallen on deaf ears.