On an urgent request from shrimp exporters, facing a surge in rejection of shipments in Japan, an official request has been made by Indian government authorities to keep in abeyance, for now, the new standards in question.
Around 200 containers of shrimp have been rejected over recent weeks by the Japanese authorities, on detection of ethoxyquin . This has heavily hit the exports to Japan, especially from states like Odisha and west Bengal. Around 60 per cent of the Black Tiger variety of shrimp produced from these states is exported to Japan.
The commerce ministry rushed a delegation led by the chairman, Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA), and also comprising the Director, Export Inspection Council, beside the resident director-designate of MPEDA in Japan. It met Japanese officials and said the new default standard on ethoxyquin had been suddenly fixed, without any notice to India and without, says Leena Nair, head of MPEDA, any scientific study on safety evaluation, nationally or internationally. There are no international norms fixed for ethoxyquin in shrimps by authorities in either America or the European Union, for instance. And, even Japan permitted, a certain level of its presence in fish.
The delegation requested that the standard for ethoxyquin in shrimps be fixed only after proper safety studies and till then, the level permitted for fish consignments could be allowed for shrimp.
Fishmeal forms an important component of feed for shrimps. To protect the feed from rancidity, a large range of anti-oxidants are authorised. Ethoxyquin is one of the most popular and effective anti-oxidants, used worldwide, M.K Ram Mohan, deputy director, MPEDA, informed Business Standard.
The delegation also met the Japanese minister for health, labour and welfare. Nair requested the minister to also look at the issue compassionately, as the lives of about 50,000 aquaculture-farmer families were involved, apart from those of exporters.
The matter is being followed up by the embassy of India in Japan, by MPEDA and the ministry of commerce, Rammohan said.