New lab at Savar for fish quality control starts functioning soon

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Fisheries and Livestock Minister Abdul Latif Biswas and European Union Ambassador to Bangladesh William Hanna seen, among others, at the discussion organised by Department of Fisheries and UNIDO at a city hotel Wednesday. — FE Photo

FE Report Speakers at a discussion Wednesday stressed the need for ensuring quality and safety of fish and fishery products to boost exports and domestic sale. It was disclosed in the seminar that the new Fish Inspection and Quality Control (FIQC) laboratory at Savar will start functioning very soon. They were speaking at a programme on "Bangladesh -EU Partnership: Better Access of Bangladesh Fishery Products to Global Market" jointly organized by Strengthening of Fishery and Aquaculture Food Safety and Quality Management System in Bangladesh (BEST Project), Department of Fisheries (DoF) and BEST-Better Fisheries Quality (BFQ) Component, UNIDO, held in the city. Fisheries Minister Abdul Latif Biswas and William Hanna, EU Head of Delegation and Ambassador jointly released the BEST-BFQ brochure by highlighting the achievements on it. Programmes on good aquaculture, hygiene and manufacturing practices are going on from root level to processing plants of the fishery products supply chain under the BEST project, the minister said adding the guideline on the use of veterinary medicinal products is also in progressing. "There is no alternative of quality to get world market access and good price, especially in the EU market," the minister said, calling upon all to work together to ensure traceability, compliance to meet the safety and quality requirements in export markets and improve competitiveness and take advantage of global market opportunities. Ujjal Bikash Dutta, secretary of Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock, said Bangladesh is among the top 10 shrimp producers in the world and there are pressures from the major markets to ensure food safety. "Efforts are on but these are not adequate," he said stressing more steps to elevate the shrimp standard to the international level both for the local and foreign consumers. He expressed the hope that the project would help the country ensure food safety with upgradation of testing results. Dr TS Shetty, technical advisor and Shamshad B Quraishi, national expert of BEST-BFQ,UNIDO project, presented two papers on "Integrated approaches of Bangladesh towards food safety, quality and social compliance of fishery products" and "Highlights of Achievements towards improving testing capacity of FIQC labs". Explaining the outcome of the project, Mr Shetty said it has led to better food safety and compliance of Bangladesh shrimp sector from farm to fork and improved testing capacity of the country through establishment of laboratories towards accreditation. "Successful audit of fisheries sector by Food and Veterinary Office of EU in 2011, withdrawal of 20 per cent mandatory testing requirement due to improved food safety compliance of the shrimp sector and better price of Bangladeshi shrimp than neighbouring countries are the indicators of achievements," he explained. William Hanna said the BEST project could be a good example for the country's ready made garment industry to reduce its present crisis over the issues of compliance including fire safety. "The project is working for better food safety not only in EU but also in Bangladesh and it also helps the private entrepreneurs for better prices of their products especially shrimp," he said adding Bangladesh has a good image in this sector. Syed Arif Azad, Director General of Department of Fisheries called on co-ordinated efforts to ensure traceability and for safe food from farm to fork.