Local animal health companies have sought withdrawal of the proposed radioactive-testing provision for their import consignments of different fish/animal feed, feed supplements and feed additives as such requirement, they said, increases extra costs for them.
Recently, the Animal Health Companies' Association of Bangladesh (AHCAB) has requested the commerce ministry to take necessary step on the issue in the new import policy order 2025-28.
According to the current import policy order, radioactive free certificate issued by the exporting country is required for unloading the consignments.
They claimed there is no such testing all consignments in any country of the world.
The radioactive testing certificate only requires in Bangladesh for unloading the consignment.
An AHCAB source said some provisions have been put for checking imported different items, including fish/animal feed, feed supplements and feed additives.
Also, port demerge has been ballooned. For this, prices of the items have been increasing in the market.
When contacted, AHCAB Secretary General Mohammad Aftab Alam said, "We requested the government not to include radioactive testing in the new policy order."
"We all have sought exclusion of the provision from the proposed order for countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and the ASIAN region.
He mentioned that currently, radioactive testing certificate is not needed in the country for food consignments imported from the SAARC and the ASIAN.
For this, the government considers the request on the consignments of fish/animal feed, feed supplements and feed additives. In terms of Bangladesh food safety and standard testing, like other countries in the world, the country tested 100 per cent consignments instead of 5-10 per cent consignments which is against the risk management concept of modern import and export of the WTO and no country in the world tests 100 per cent consignments in this way, according to the AHCAB.
According to the association, non-availability of online application and payment and checking of all consignments in bulk takes more time and cost and incurs an additional cost which is ultimately bares on to consumers.
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