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Following Bangladesh’s success in meeting most of the EU fish farming standards, the European Union is considering cutting 20 ore cent of the stringent testing requirements for Bangladeshi aquaculture products.
A report by the EU Food and Veterniary Office team, which visited the country in March, said: "Improvements were seen in the residue monitoring system particularly in the laboratories. In contrast to the findings in 2010, the analytical methods used for the residue monitoring programme in crustaceans and for the pre-export testing are now validated and fit for the target purpose."
The EU has also reduced its list of recommendations from 12 to four.
"We have improved much in all our aquaculture compliances that the last EU FVO team recommended, and it is reflected in the draft report," commented Shamsul Kibria, joint secretary of the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock (MoFL).
"We will take measures to comply with the four recommendations, suggested in the draft report, within this year. We will provide our response to the EU authority regarding our initiatives to fulfill those recommendations by this month, and we will also request them to withdraw the stringent testing measure," he added.
Bangladeshi exporters and officials believe the team’s visit earlier this year is vital for the shrimp industry, as it would determine how well the sector will fare.
The EU is Bangladesh’s main shrimp buyer with nearly 50 per cent of shipments in 2010.
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