A GROUP of North American seafood producers are warning that imports of certain seafood products from India are below standard.
The Southern Shrimp Alliance, an organisation of eight southern states engaged in warm water prawn fishing have appealed to the US Food and Drugs Administration to step up its testing of Indian seafood imports.The Alliance has based its allegations on the “reported” dissatisfaction of the European Union with the shrimp produced in India. Indeed the EU is reported to be getting tough with seafood imports from a large part of South East Asia, which is causing concern in a number of countries in that region. They also point to the rapid growth in seafood exports to the EU in recent times and the rising number of rejections.The Seafood Exporters Association of India has said recently that the number of EU rejections are quite nominal at less than two per cent.
However, the Southern Shrimp Alliance has written to the FDA Commissioner Dr Margaret Hamburg saying that there have been reports of Indian seafood firms using potentially harmful antibiotics in their aquaculture farms.
The Alliance letter adds: "This recent development highlights the fact that while other major seafood importing countries have taken proactive steps to protect their consumers from farm-raised shrimp and other seafood tainted with banned substances, parallel efforts have not been undertaken in this country (India).
"The United States’ lack of effective controls alone presents a significant risk to U.S. consumers, but the combination of this lax regulation with significant regulation by other countries multiplies this risk exponentially as our market becomes a magnet for unsafe shrimp."
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