June 14, 2007	Thursday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 28, 1428

KARACHI, June 13: Seafood shipments worth Rs400 million made to India for re-export to Europe have stuck up at two Indian ports and the Indian traders have threatened to cancel the deal and return the consignments to Pakistan.

This is the latest setback in a series of shocks suffered by the seafood exporters since April 12 when the EU banned export of seafood from Pakistan.

Another major challenge awaits the seafood industry. The exporters fear that if the export of fisheries to EU countries is not resumed by August 1, they would be in deep trouble as the landing of small shrimps, which are mostly destined for Europe, will touch the peak level between 200,000-300,000 tons a day.

Last but not the least problem faced by fish exporters is from the Marine Fisheries Department (MFD), which is not providing them a copy of action plan submitted by Pakistan to the European Commission.

Fisheries sector sources said that the EC had already received information that the Pakistani fisheries products, which had already been banned by the EC on quality ground from April 12, had been lifted by the Indian traders at lower rates for onward shipments to the European countries. Sources said that the EC is reported to have taken serious notice of such practice adopted by the Indian traders and has finally blocked such imports from India to Europe.

Sources said that some 19 containers each loaded with 20,000-25,000 tons of seafood products worth Rs6-7 million each are arriving back toPakistan, thus causing huge loss to the exporters. The exporters had discussed this issue with the Secretary Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (Minfal), Ismail Qurieshi in the last week of May but he could not provide any solution as he was removed from the post very next day of the meeting.

Chairman Pakistan Seafood Industries Association (PSIA), Mohammad Hanif Khan said that he had written a letter to the director general of MFD to provide the copy of the action plan but so far he had not received any thing.

“Exporters have the right to know the details of the government’s follow up efforts in handling the ban imposed by the EC on seafood exports,” he said.

The EC had sought comments and guarantees from the government in their final report but instead of taking the real stakeholders into confidence on the action plan the MFD acted against the fish processing plants and suspended their license.

These processing plants had successfully undergone three inspections done by the EC inspectors. Traceability and cold chain were new issues pointed out for the first time by the EC inspectors and they needed time to be implemented.