Japan has agreed to resolve the issue of problems faced by Indian marine exporters regarding the level of ethoxyquin in shrimps by the year-end.
This has come as a welcome development for the prawn farmers too. Union Minister of Commerce & Industry Anand Sharma raised this issue at his meeting with Jaapan’s Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Toshimitsu Motegi on Wednesday. Sharma told the Japanese Minister, “As the standards in India meet that in other sensitive markets like EU, this matter needs to be expedited by Japan within a specific timeframe.”
Motegi replied, “We have received the request. The concerned agencies are engaged with the same. They have been asked to look into a solution by the year-end.” Earlier, during his visit to Japan in May 2013, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh too had raised the issue as the Japanese move has severely affected the marine export from India.
He had hoped that the issue would be resolved soon. In September 2012, Japan’s Food Safety Commission announced new regulations that would impose compulsory testing for ethoxyquin in shrimp consignments.The regulations-introduced health standards tolerate ethoxyquin levels up to 0.01 ppm, down from the previous 1 ppm.
As per a Press release by the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) of India on June 24, 2013, in the year 2012-13 export of frozen shrimp from the country decreased by 11.07 per cent in quantity terms and 21.92 per cent in dollar terms mainly due to the ethoxyquin issue.