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Seafood processing plant. (Photo: Stock File)
Export rejection rate by the EU drops
INDIA
Monday, May 22, 2017, 06:50 (GMT + 9)
European Union (EU) rejections on Indian seafood exports have gone down consistently in the last five years, according to Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA).
“After the recent revision in EU’s export quality bar, the rejections of seafood exports could have been as high as 50 per cent. However, Indian seafood industry proved its mettle and managed to withstand the new restrictions, by maintaining a low rejection rate,” pointed out MPEDA chairperson A Jayathilak.
The seafood export rejection rate has remained an average of five per year. MPEDA officials have been in talks with the EU Directorate in Brussels, planning to further tighten the quality norms in seafood exports in India. More rigorous standards are likely to be set on measures like pre-harvest testing in aquafarms, reported Financial Express.
“The industry of fishing from the sea is shrinking. World-over the ratio of marine fisheries to aquaculture farming have shifted to 50:50, which could have effected the thrust on quality norms”, stressed John Alexander Benzie of Malaysia-based World Fish Centre, Malaysia, after presenting a paper at Aqua Aquaria India (AAI-2017), the largest aqua-farming and ornamental fish breeding show in Asia.
In India, the ratio of marine fisheries to aquaculture farming is already much lower than the international ratio on this. One reason was the dramatic difference brought by the entry of Pacific white shrimp (Litopeneaus vannamei) in the country’s commercial farming scene.
Within three years of its entry, the farm-grown vannamei has emerged to constitute as much as 53 per cent of seafood exports in value terms. To keep this high-valued export stream intact, MPEDA had to pull up its socks and invest a tight vigil on minimising negative factors like pesticide residue.
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