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R. Balaji

CHENNAI, Oct 4.

The Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI) has formally announced its decision to purchase raw material from October 17, 2002 only if an antibiotic free certificate accompanies it.

According to Mr Elias Sait, President, Seafood Exporters Association of India, the move is to tackle the problem of antibiotic residues in shrimps exported to the EU.

This emerged as a major issue following the rejection of several consignments exported from here, and the risk of exports from India being put on `red alert'. Following recent rejections of consignments, the authorities concerned had also ordered a handful of processing units to stop production.

The farmers would have to assure the processors that antibiotics were not used in culture. The stocks would have to be certified by authorities concerned like the Export Inspection Agency, the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) or any other agency. The Export Inspection Agency (EIA) certified the stocks exported. This is done by monitoring the system in place at the processing units rather than individual testing of the export consignments, he said.

The Government would have to put in place the required infrastructure including testing laboratories. There were no effective regulations to assess the quality of inputs used by the farmers, he said.

However, industry sources acknowledge that under the existing circumstances it will be a tough job to obtain certificates assuring that the shrimps are antibiotic-free. There is no mechanism in place either to test the stocks or to issue certificates. At the farm level, the system is largely unorganised with thousands of farmers having holdings of less than two hectares. But the processors are helpless as they are attracting all the flak, they said.

Further, sources expressed concern that there was a lack of transparency on the part of importing countries that reject consignments. For instance, apart from antibiotic residue in cultured shrimps, there had been instances of consignments being rejected for traces of `microbial inhibitors' but the nature of such residues have not been clarified. Apart from farm grown shrimps such residues had been detected even in sea caught material, they said.

With each container running into Rs 30-40 lakh or more, the rejection of one consignment represented not just the loss of that particular container, but also meant that the banks will cut off working capital because of the losses faced by the processor. The authorities here had adopted a tough stand, bordering on `overreaction', they said.

Meanwhile, the Aquaculture Authority, as a part of its licensing for shrimp farms, has come out with a list of 20 antibiotics/pharmacologically active substances that have been banned and prohibited for use in the shrimp farms. The authority has also expressed concern that several `aqua shops' in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu sell antibiotics, drugs and chemicals or medical formulations unauthorisedly for shrimp culture. Most of the products are without label or description of their components. Antibiotics were being sold under the guise of probiotics (beneficial micro-organisms), which are used for culture.

Our Kochi Bureau adds: A SEAI release on Friday, announcing the decision, said the certificate should be authenticated by MPEDA/EIA/CIFT or any other Government agency.

Such an effort was being taken to totally eliminate the risk of antibiotic, which could result in the trade losing the market of Europe, the US Japan and other countries, it said.

As it stands today, the entire risk of antibiotic rejection is squarely on the exporter despite having the best infrastructure in the processing plants and in transportation of the material. Additionally the exporters also ran the risk of their production and export being suspended by the Government authorities, the release added.

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