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Bangladeshi shrimp plants fully compliant, Visiting high-powered team tells US FDA
A high-powered Bangladeshi team, now on a visit to the US, on Tuesday told US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials that local shrimp processing plants fully comply with US FDA requirements. (19 Jun 2008) The Daily Star
19 June 2008
by Jasim Uddin Khan
A high-powered Bangladeshi team, now on a visit to the US, on Tuesday told US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials that local shrimp processing plants fully comply with US FDA requirements.
The visit by the officials begins on hot heels of allegations by AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations) that Bangladesh shrimp plants use child labour and lack standards.
According to officials
in Dhaka yesterday, the Bangladesh team led by Fisheries and Livestock Secretary
Syed Ataur Rahman met AFL-CIO officials, telling them the local shrimp industry
is now fully free from child labour.
Following the AFL-CIO allegations
in May this year, the government found the AFL-CIO report was prepared on the
basis of field visits made around two years back. The situation of the industry
has improved dramatically since then.
The Bangladesh team will also
invite the US officials to inspect shrimp processing plants in Bangladesh
again.
The team will also make presentation before the United State Trade
Representative (USTR) officials and congressmen to tell them the shrimp industry
in Bangladesh creates huge numbers of employment.
Other members of the
team are Joint Secretary (Ministry of Commerce) Golam Hossain¸ Bangladesh Shrimp
and Fish Foundation Chairman Syed Mahmudul Haque, Bangladesh Frozen Foods
Association Member SM Amzad Hossain.
Earlier, the AFL-CIO filed a
petition with the US Trade Representative against Bangladesh alleging serious
violations of the labour laws in the country's garment and frozen food
industries. Subsequently, a hearing was held at the USTR in Washington, DC in
October 2007. Upon hearing the foundation's testimony, the USTR did not impose
any sanctions but decided to keep Bangladesh under observation until June 2008.
Bangladesh earned $449 million in the first ten months of the outgoing
fiscal year from frozen foods exports despite external and domestic
odds.
The association is now trying to boost export to the EU market,
which consumes 48-50 percent of Bangladesh's total export of frozen
foods.
Shrimps and fish export, now the second largest foreign exchange
earner for Bangladesh, employ more than 7.5 lakh people. Around 1.4 lakh farmers
using 2.5 lakh hectares of land in southeastern and southwestern coastal areas
of Cox's Bazaar, Bagerhat, Khulna and Satkhira now produce more than 50,000
tonnes of shrimps annually, mostly by using traditional methods.
Source: The Daily Star
