Mpeda gets formal nod from China for exports

The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) of China has formally approved India’s request for an inspection and quarantine certification, paving the way to the continuance of export of seafood items to China.

Seafood export to China has to be accompanied by this certificate, effective June 1, 2012. As India had not been included in the list of the approved countries, exports to China were in doldrums during April and May.

The Marine Products Export Development Authority (Mpeda) on Friday informed that the Indian embassy in Beijing had conveyed them the formal approval by the Chinese authorities in this regard.

 

The Export Inspection Council of India (EIC) will be issuing the required certificates for exports to China. Mpeda and EIC had approached the Chinese authorities through the Indian embassy in Beijing two weeks ago.

Exporters had stopped sending consignments to China from April last week as it takes three to four weeks for the consignments to reach the Chinese ports.

This has affected the seafood sector of Gujarat badly since 70 per cent of the exports to China is from that state. The average annual export to China is 90,000 tonne (11 per cent of the total export) valued at Rs 1151 crore, which mainly includes low-value fish items.

India was not included in the list of countries that had conformed with AQSIQ for the export of aquatic products to China. This is because of the grave negligence from the Indian side as China published the notification a year ago.

They had published the list of approved countries in October 2011, but India did not act at all. AQSIQ had approved 27 countries, of which seven are from Asia. These include Vietnam, Thailand, Pakistan, Japan, Philippines, Myanmar and South Korea. While 10 nations are from Europe, seven are from the Americas. Australia and New Zealand are also included in the list.

India exported a total of 845,000 tonne of seafood items valued at Rs 16,824 crore in 2011-12.