3 shrimp processing factories face the music due to presence of nitro furan
Sunday, 19 April 2009
Our Correspondent
KHULNA, Apr 18: Thousands of workers have been rendered unemployed as licences of three shrimp processing factories have been cancelled in Khulna region recently.
Sources said licences of Modern Sea Food, Prince Sea Food and Asian Sea Food were cancelled on ground of the presence of nitro furan bacteria in their exportable frozen shrimps in recent months.
The three factories had been exporting frozen shrimps worth about Tk 3.5 billion per year. They invested about 2.5 billion in this sector including in the infrastructure development.
The jobless workers, mostly females, widows and abandoned women, said that they were passing days in severe financial crisis and they do not have alternative earning scopes in Khulna.
A widow worker, who lost her job, told this correspondent that she was unable to maintain her three-member family for the last 3 to 4 months.
She said that many of the female workers were now engaged in antisocial activities to earn a living. She also said that the possibility of their returning to normal life was slim, if the factories were not reopened immediately.
The fish exporters smelled a conspiracy in the cancellation order and said that it only to ruin the shrimp industry of the region following the ruination of the local jute industry.
Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association (BFFEA) President Baki Billa expressed hope that the cancellation order would soon be revoked and the industries would be able to export frozen shrimps again.
KHULNA, Apr 18: Thousands of workers have been rendered unemployed as licences of three shrimp processing factories have been cancelled in Khulna region recently.
Sources said licences of Modern Sea Food, Prince Sea Food and Asian Sea Food were cancelled on ground of the presence of nitro furan bacteria in their exportable frozen shrimps in recent months.
The three factories had been exporting frozen shrimps worth about Tk 3.5 billion per year. They invested about 2.5 billion in this sector including in the infrastructure development.
The jobless workers, mostly females, widows and abandoned women, said that they were passing days in severe financial crisis and they do not have alternative earning scopes in Khulna.
A widow worker, who lost her job, told this correspondent that she was unable to maintain her three-member family for the last 3 to 4 months.
She said that many of the female workers were now engaged in antisocial activities to earn a living. She also said that the possibility of their returning to normal life was slim, if the factories were not reopened immediately.
The fish exporters smelled a conspiracy in the cancellation order and said that it only to ruin the shrimp industry of the region following the ruination of the local jute industry.
Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association (BFFEA) President Baki Billa expressed hope that the cancellation order would soon be revoked and the industries would be able to export frozen shrimps again.