The European Parliament has lifted the safeguard measures and testing certificates requirement for frozen fish from Bangladesh.
The decision comes after the production has been upgraded to the EU standard, officials said.
Department of Fisheries was confirmed yesterday by the commercial counsellor at the Bangladesh Embassy in Brussels that the decision was made on Tuesday.
According to the sector people, Bangladeshi exporters had to place around 35 certificates of Food and Veterinary Office of European Commission.
“Since the testing standards of Bangladeshi labs were upgraded to EU standard, that is why the European Parliament lifted the testing certificate conditions on import of shrimp from Bangladesh,” Syed Arif Azad, director general of Department of Fisheries, told the Dhaka Tribune.
In April, an audit team of EU visited Bangladesh to review the testing standard. During the 10-days visit, the team went to farms, processing plants, check medicine used for the sector and testing labs.
“Based on the finding of the visit, the team placed report. The decision came thereafter,” said Azad.
He said now the Bangladeshi exporters would be able to export shrimps to the EU countries without any bar and the lift would act as a brand for Bangladesh.
He said benefits of the lifting would depend on the responsibilities and accountabilities of the exporters as they had to explore new market in the EU countries.
According to sector people, Bangladesh is the first country, which has qualified in the standard test of the EU.
The EU imposed the measures in 2008, following detection of veterinary medicinal products and unauthorised substances in frozen fish exported to the EU from Bangladesh.
According to Bangladesh Frozen Food Exporters Association, the EU is the largest export destination for Bangladesh’s frozen fish and about 75% of export go to those countries. While US imports 5% and the rest are exported to other countries.
According to the latest data of Export Promotion Bureau, in the first five months of the current fiscal year, the frozen foods and live fish sector have seen a sharp decline of 27.71% to $229.45m compared to $300.76m a year ago.
In the last FY, Bangladesh earned $568m, which was nearly 11% less compared to $638m in FY14.
