Marine export under EU lens

The forthcoming visit of a European Union delegation to inspect fish-processing plants in the country assumes special significance in the light of the Union's rejection of consignments of marine products from India.

A four-member, high-level delegation of the EU, which will inspect various processing units, fish-landing centres and other infrastructure facilities to ensure safety of the marine products exported from the country, will arrive on November 12. The team will visit Kochi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bhubaneswar, Visakhapatnam and Bhimavaram (Andhra Pradesh).

The EU has so far rejected as many as 27 consignments of marine products from the country during the current calendar year on grounds of the products containing antibiotic residues over the permissible limit.

According to experts, the EU inspection assumes significance as the report by the visiting delegation will be critical to the continuance of India's exports to EU nations. With Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) setting a target of $6 billion exports by 2015, this EU inspection holds the key to the country's marine sector.

In the country, as many as 168 processing units and 19 frozen cold storages are working with the approval of EU. Needless to say that food safety is of utmost importance in EU nations, which topped the list of importers of Indian products at 29 per cent of the total value in 2005-06.

During 2005-06, India exported 5,12,164 tonne of marine products valued at Rs 7,245.30 crore ($1.6 billion) to EU countries. At 23 per cent, the US share in terms of India's export value stood next to EU's 29 per cent during the financial year.

A few years ago, the Union completely banned exports from India on grounds of antibiotic residues in marine products and serious lapse in food safety measures including the water used for processing. Experts said this inspection held the key as most fish-landing centres in the country were still handling marine products without proper safety measures.

Meanwhile, the aqua culture sector in India is awaiting another report of a EU expert team. A three-member delegation had visited the country in September and inspected various aqua culture centres in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

To ensure safety with regard to antibiotic and heavy metal residues, MPEDA has implemented the National Residue Control Programme and, accordingly, samples of shrimp, fresh water fish, water and feed collected from farmers, processing plants etc were analysed at MPEDA laboratories at Kochi, Nellore and Bhimavaram.