Action plan to meet EU criteria on shrimp export

The government has drawn up an action plan to meet the required criteria for export of shrimp and other fishes, especially to the European market, officials have said.
The government's latest move came ahead of the visit of a European Union (EU) delegation to inspect the country's shrimp processing plants in different areas, they have said.
The action plan is related to strict control of use of antibiotic/chemicals in fish production, implementation of the national residue control plan (NRCP) and strengthening of official monitoring.
The EU team will visit the country in April next year to inspect the shrimp plants to see whether they are following scientific methods in processing and exporting shrimp and other fishes to the EU markets.
The EU Food and Veterinary Office (FVO) will send a team to the country early next year to carry out audit/inspection in the local shrimp processing plants to see practically how shrimp is processed for export, a joint secretary of the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock (MoFL) has told the FE.
The action plan also seeks to follow recommendations by the EU- FVO report that suggested lightened official control on veterinary medicinal products (VMPs), legal basis authorisation for controlling VMPs and good aquaculture practice by shrimp cultivators/ farmers.
According to  shrimp exporters, the upcoming visit of the EU team is a part of its routine work and they have been engaged in doing it
since the fiscal year (FY) of 1996- 97.
The shrimp exporters said they had been complying with the EU standards.
"We welcome the government initiative. We have been following the government instructions strictly. Our processing plants are fully complying with the EU compliance standard/criteria," President of the Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association (BFFEA) Md Amin Ullah told the FE.
He said the country exported shrimp and other fishes worth US$ 638 million in the fiscal year (FY) 2013-14.
"It is nothing new. The EU has been doing it since 1997. The shrimp plants that are approved by the EU are fully complying with their criteria," director of the BFFEA Golam Mostafa, who was also the president of the organisation, told the FE.
The EU launched strict monitoring in 2009 after allegations were raised that harmful metallic elements and chemicals such as nitrofurans, a banned antibiotic were being used in shrimp and other fish items.
Exportable shrimp is are cultivated mainly in Cox's Bazar, Khulna, Satkhira, Bagerhat, Jessore and Narail.
The shrimp sector, the third largest source of foreign currency earnings is contributing a lot to economic development of the country.
Shrimp exports account for 80 per cent of the total fishery exports to the EU. This sector has generated direct and indirect employment of some 12 million people and contributes over 4 per cent of the GDP, according to the ministry concerned and industry insiders.
Bangladesh has been exporting shrimp since 1972.
The country exported a total of 78,000 metric tonnes of shrimps and other varieties of fishes to the EU countries, the United States and some other countries and earned US $ 638 million in the fiscal year (FY) 2013-14.
The BFFEA has set a target to earn $ 76 million more during the current fiscal, compared to the previous fiscal.
Of the total export, 60 per cent of the shrimp shipment goes to the EU countries - the United Kingdom (UK), France, Germany, Belgium and Netherlands.   
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