The European Union (EU) has approved Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) as the validating agency for issuing catch certificates for exporting marine products to EU nations. EU notified this on December 22. The Union government had earlier nominated MPEDA as the designated agency to issue catch certificates.
Meanwhile, the catch certificate issue has taken a serious turn as the Kerala State Fishing Boat Operators Association, an organisation of 2,200 fishing boat owners, has decided to revolt against the concept of issue of catch certificates.
A meeting of the state executive committee of the association held here on Sunday has decided to moot agitation against this new requirement.
Joseph Xavier Kalappurackal, General Secretary of the association said that such a system is impractical as most of the boat workers are illiterate to keep records of the daily catch. He alleged that EU had implemented such a system because of the poor quality of Indian seafood items.
A top MPEDA official said that India alone could not be left out of the purview of catch certificate as EU is very adamant on the issue. All leading Asian countries such as Thailand, Taiwan, China and Indonesia have already agreed to the EU requirement and India will not get a concession over this. “Without catch certificates we cannot export to EU nations and thus we will loose our largest market.” he said.
He also said that fishing boat owners from other maritime states have agreed to cooperate with the new procedure. Except Tamil Nadu and Kerala, there was no resistance from any other state.
