Ch. Prashanth Reddy
Hyderabad, Oct. 2
IN the light of the ban on five major
Indian seafood units European Union, seafood exporters in the country are likely to focus
their trade on the US market rather than Europe, according to Mr. Sivakumar, Chief
Executive of the ITC International Business Division (ITC-IBD).
He told Business Line the US and
Japan had higher tolerance for antibiotic traces and hence the exporters would concentrate
on these markets. While the US would permit antibiotic traces to an extent of 5 parts per
billion (ppb), Japan would allow up to 30 ppb. On the other hand, EU does not allow the
presence of antibiotic traces.
Stating that the five banned units were
among the better seafood exporters in the country, he said the whole episode amounted to
non-tariff barriers. In fact, the extent of antibiotic traces present in the consignments
of these companies was naturally present in various other European Union food products.
Dissemination of these facts, he said,
should be a part of efforts to counter such non-tariff barriers being imposed by the
developed countries. It should try to prevail upon these countries regarding the realistic
residue levels. A joint effort on the part of the Government as well as the industry was
needed in this regard.
Mr. Sivakumar, however, said the solution
to the problem did not lie in seeking laboratory certificates from farmers regarding
non-usage of antibiotics. The proposal of the Seafood Exporters Association of India
(SEAI) to seek such a certificate was impracticable.
He said the problem brought to the fore the
need for exercising a greater degree of control on the whole supply chain starting with
stocking of seed by farmers. This would be a more pro-active step and "that is where
our e-choupals come into picture".
The ITC-IBD chief said SEAI should adopt an
agenda that had both short-term and long-term action plans focussing on inspection of the
supply chain right farm level to the industry.
