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Indian aquaculture products to undergo tests before entering EU
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Wednesday, 10 March, 2010, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Our Bureau, Mumbai
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 The European Union (EU) has decided to thoroughly check the aquaculture products imported from India from April this year. Based on a report of the technical committee on marine products, the EU health authority has recommended to check at least 20% of the aquaculture products imported from India for various tests such as antibiotic residue and micro organisms. Currently, random sampling of products is conducted for these quality checks, according to a report in Business Standard.
“EU will adopt the 20% sampling method on farm-based products, especially shrimp, from this April. We don’t have a detailed information whether 20% of each consignment or 20% of the total consignments will be collected for testing. We are awaiting further details about their decision,” said Anwar Hashim, president, Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI).
Sources close to the developments said this would make exports to EU, which is the biggest importer fro India, very tough. It is likely that European importers will avoid Indian aquaculture products, especially shrimp, because the sampling and testing process will lead to a lag of one to four weeks for the delivery of products. This will be a threat to the exports to the EU nations.
The fresh move of EU is following the strict implementation of catch certificates for Indian seafood products from the beginning of the year 2010. The latest move from the EU has come as a bolt from the blue as the government of India had implemented the issuance of catch certificates after a cumbersome administrative process.
EU is the largest importer of Indian marine products. During 2008-09, it had the largest market share of 32.53 per cent in rupee realization followed by China (15.06%), Japan (14.34 %) and the US (11.87%).
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