ISLAMABAD, Aug 2: The government has decided to lift a self-imposed ban on exports of seafood to 26 European Union countries from August 8 following the implementation of quality and standards of seafood under the European Commission food safety act.

Talking to Dawn on Tuesday, Food, Agriculture and Livestock (Minfal) Secretary Mohammad Ismail Qureshi said that the ministry had implemented a series of recommendations of the EC technical team, from catching to processing of seafood, to meet safety requirements.

He said the first container of seafood would be shipped from the Karachi harbour to EU states on August 8 as per schedule. Mr Qureshi said the EC would be informed about the Pakistan’s government decision and compliance adopted on their recommendations.

Answering a question, the secretary said that EU Ambassador to Pakistan IIkka Uusitalo would soon visit the Karachi harbour area to inspect conditions of boats, processing units and auction halls, which had been improved as per recommendations of the EC technical team. The EU envoy would review the measures taken by Minfal for meeting the EC standards before allowing the import of seafood from Pakistan.

The government had modified around 150 boats, which would be exclusively used for catching of fish for the EU-member countries. A separate centrally air-conditioned auction hall was also established for the seafood that could be exclusively exported to the EU countries.

The secretary said that shortcomings, identified by the EC technical team in its report, were removed from all the processing units.

Pakistan’s seafood production stood at 566,000 tons during the year 2003-04. Of these, 400,000 tons came from marine while the remaining from inland water.

The seafood exports to the EU countries stood at 54 per cent of Pakistan’s total earnings from this industry. Pakistan mainly exports seafood to 10 EU-member countries — Belgium, the UK, Germany, France, Greece, Irish Republic, Portugal, Italy, the Netherlands and Denmark.