Speakers at a workshop Mondaysaid the practice of fish adulteration cannot be stopped if fish laws are not enforced and unscrupulous traders and exporters get scot-free.
“Only formulating laws and policies is not going to get results; we need to ensure they are rightly enforced,” said Mike Robson, representative of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN in Dhaka.
The workshop was meant to be a brainstorming session about two fish acts passed in recent years, namely Fish and Animal Act-2010 and Fish Hatchery Act-2010.
It was organised by advocacy organisation Bangladesh Shrimp and Fish Foundation (BSFF) in collaboration with the Department of Fisheries and Bangladesh Agriculture Alliance.
Fisheries and Livestock Minister Abdul Latif Biswas, who was present as the chief guest of the event, said: “A group of corrupt businessmen have been active in marketing and exporting low-quality fish, which is damaging the country’s reputation.”
“The sector (fisheries) generated employment for more than 600,000 people in the country, playing an important role in addressing the problem of unemployment.”
As per the two acts, passed on separate days in 2010, license is mandatory for every fish hatchery and fish producers have to renew their licenses every year. In addition, fishes are subject to laboratory tests before they are marketed.
Among a total of 868 private hatcheries across the country, 488 were brought under registration and the rest are likely to be registered by this December.
Dr Shelina Afroza, secretary for the fisheries and livestock ministry, said, an increasing growth rate of the sector would help meet the demands for food in the country. “The sector grew at a rate of 6.22% in the last four years.”
The speakers also reflected on the current condition in shrimp production. Main Uddin Ahmed, president of Shrimp Hatchery Association of Bangladesh, said, “As the price of shrimp is high internationally now, we can further our revenue by increasing our export volume.”
Among others, Dr Mahmudul Karim, executive director of BSFF, Hendrik Jan Keus, “chief of party” of Feed the Future Aquaculture Project of World Fish, Syed Arif Azad, director general of the Department of Fisheries, Tenya L Jackson, agricultural officer of USAID Bangladesh, and Mashiur Rahman, president of Poultry and Feed Industry Coordination Committee, were also present at the programme.
