The government is going to send a new list of frozen food exporting companies to Russia by this month to expand the country's market share there, officials have said.
"We started inspecting some 22 fish processing plants last week with a view to short-listing frozen food exporters," Department of Fisheries Director General Syed Arif Azad told the FE.
"Our search committee members preparing the list for Russia are now visiting plants in Khulna and Chittagong zones to evaluate these plants and they will make a report on these."
"After that, we will sit and send our recommendations to the Bangladesh embassy in Russia by August to allow the exporters to export frozen food there," Mr Azad said.
"The Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance of Russian Federation (Rosselkhoznadzor) has asked the embassy of Bangladesh in Russia for sending a list of frozen food processing plants," Nittya Ranjan Biswas, Principal Scientific Officer (PSO) of the Fish Inspection and Quality Control (FIQC) under the DoF, said.
He said: "Commercial counsellor Noor M M Haq sent a letter to the DoF in this regard in April, 2014. We have thus decided to visit 22 fish processing plants out of 62 that got A grade (80 +) during renewal of licences this year."
Mr Biswas said licences of 62 fish processing plants of the country out of 68 had been renewed. A seven-member committee is now visiting the fish processing plants and examining different issues like maintaining standard from fish collection to finished products, internal quality control, laboratory tests, storage facilities, workers' wages, their hygiene, sanitation, effluent treatment plants and others.
Mr Biswas said: "We sent reports on 31 local fish processing plants to Russia in 2010. But those are not valid."
The DoF officials visited 16 fish processing plants of Khulna from August 5 to August 8. They will visit five plants of Chittagong from August 12 to August 14. According to the Memorandum of Understanding between Bangladesh and Russia, the DoF has to recommend names of fish processing plants for exports.
On the other hand, exporters have to contact the Russian buyers and if the latter are convinced after visiting fish processing plants and recommend to the Rosselkhoznadzor, then the Russian authority will consider allowing export of frozen food to Russia. At present, only five Bangladeshi companies -- Bagerhat Sea Food Ltd, Fresh Foods Ltd, Apex Food Ltd and ARK Sea Food Ltd and Gemini Sea Foods Ltd are exporting frozen foods to Russia.
"The initiative to send a new list will be helpful for frozen food export of the country," Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association (BFFEA) President Md Amin Ullah said.
"We export about seven per cent of total frozen food export to Russia. Our annual exports to Russia are now worth Tk 3.0 to Tk 3.5 billion."
He said before sending recommendation for any company to Rosselkhoznadzor, the DoF should be very cautious regarding quality control issue as Russia is strict on this.
Bangladesh exported frozen food worth $ 638.19 million in FY 2013-14 against the target of $ 578.77 million, according to the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) data.
