The government has purchased a testing machine worth Tk 28.0 million for the fisheries department to ensure quality of shrimps exported from the country, officials said Thursday.
Department of Fisheries (DoF) officials hope that the machine would go for commercial operation from next month after its trial operation from June 26 (Saturday).
"We are hopeful that we can move towards the commercial operation from July," Manik Mia, incharge of quality control of DoF told the FE.
This is the first time, the government has bought the machine for the DoF which will strengthen the testing facility needed for export of shrimps and save time, the officials said.
Since 2006 efforts were on to procure the machine for DoF. Last year, Bangladesh Frozen Food Exporters Association (BFFEA) donated a testing machine worth Tk 30 million.
Earlier ECNEC had approved purchase of eight machines from which Technoworth Ltd, a local agent, has procured the Waters UK company's device for the DoF, the officials added.
"This has increased our testing facilities to identify antibiotics, especially nitrofuran a carcinogenic agent," Maqsudur Rahman, vice president of BFFEA said.
Earlier, the shrimp exporters required about one month to get clearance certificate but now they would get it within 15 days, he added.
As per the European Union (EU) directives, the need of the machine for testing antibiotics and other chemicals became a pressing demand specially for EU acceptability, an exporter said.
Cancer-causing toxic antibiotic, nitrofuran, was detected in hundreds of tonnes of Bangladeshi fresh water prawn exported to the EU countries last year, he pointed out.
A team of EU inspected the state of public health and residues control in aquaculture products from root to production levels in January and suggested that the quality control of shrimps should be improved.
Tk 28.0m shrimp testing machine procured
FE Team | Published: June 26, 2010 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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