KARACHI, Jan 11: The fish harbour has been undergoing a process of face-lifting for the last two months to receive a four-member European Union (EU) delegation expected in the third week of January for examination of the harbour and fish processing industries.

The upcoming EU mission will also be verifying if the authority has successfully applied the relevant EU Standards and removed 21 deficiencies pointed out by the EU delegation in 2005.

Exporters and the Marine Fisheries Department of the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (Minfal) were confident that the EU delegation will return satisfied from Pakistan after the inspection.

The prime objective of the EU inspection is to ensure that the MFD has applied relevant EU standards or their equivalent with respect to products intended for export to the EU countries. The majority of audits and inspections will focus on assessment of eligibility/approvals for export.

Director-General MFD, Commodore (retd) S Q Raza told Dawn that preparations are in full swing and the MFD and other relevant departments have removed all deficiencies pointed out by the EU mission in 2005.

To a query why the MFD had requested the EU to extend its visit when everything was ready, he said the MFD was engaged in accreditation of two labs (micro-biological and chemical labs) which is also an EU-funded project with the help of Norway. Besides, he had to represent Pakistan in the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission meeting to be held in Japan about the same time, but said he was not going to Japan. Besides, there were Eid-ul-Azha holidays and Muharram is also starting from Jan 20. These were the reasons for asking the EU for extending dates of its visit, he added.

He said that Mr Rui Ludvino is leading the delegation and he had already visited the fish harbour.

“I am sure that the EU delegation will see a difference at the harbor, labs, processing plants, auction hall, boats, etc., as far as hygienic conditions are concerned,” he added.

The share of fish and fishery products’ exports to the EU stood at $43 million out of total exports of $196m in 2005-2006, Raza said.

Chairman, Pakistan Seafood Industries Association (PSIA), Sardar Mohammad Hanif Khan, and member executive committee of PSIA, Akhlaq Hussain said that so far everything related to maintaining hygienic conditions at the entire harbor was satisfactory.

He also claimed that deficiencies, pointed out by the EU, had been removed.

Newly appointed managing director Karachi Fish Harbor Authority (KFHA), Karim Bux Sarohi, said that the Authority had done its homework and everything was ready for the EU delegation’s visit.

Another KFHA official said some 4,000 crates for handling fish direct from the boats had been imported from Germany.

Fumigation at the harbor is still going on and even road repair work had been done.

The EU delegation had visited the harbour and processing industries in 1997, but Pakistan’s name was not included in any of the list. However, exports to EU countries continued without any interruption.In March 1999, another EU delegation came here and included Pakistan’s name in EU’s harmonized countries’ list by allowing 23 plants for export of fish products.

In January 2005, the EU inspection team visited the harbour and processing plants. In its general conclusion, the EU found 21 deficiencies at the harbour and processing plants.

It said that the Marine Fisheries Department was not able to demonstrate that the laws in force, intended to deliver the guarantees prescribed by the Commission Decision 2000.83/EC, were effectively applied and verified.

The MFD was not in a position to certify the special conditions governing imports of fish products originating from Pakistan. The EU conclusion further said that taking into account the findings recorded in production sites, the fish products imported from Pakistan could not be considered as free from potential public health risk.

As a result, Pakistan had to suspend export of fish products to the EU from January to August 2005. Later, the ministry of food lifted the self-imposed ban on the assurance of the Sindh government that it would meet all the standards.