Staff Reporter
A delegation of the United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) will visit Bangladesh this month to see the progresses made by Bangladesh’s frozen food sector regarding hygiene and food safety.
Prior the visit the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock will convene a preparatory meeting of the stakeholders tomorrow at the ministry conference room where methods of preventing Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) will be identified.
Fisheries and Livestock Secretary Shah Alam will preside over the meeting where leaders of the most of the organisations relating to frozen foods have been invited.
Bangladesh’s frozen food sector is being blamed for contamination with bacteria and other poisons and many of the consignments returned from US and European Union for the same.
Due to the strict safety rules of US and EU on frozen food Bangladesh’s frozen food export faced various obstacles in the recent years. The exporters at a recent meeting with Commerce Minister Faruk Khan has urged for diplomacy to reduce the impediments.
They sought cooperation from the government to help face the challenge of the changed economic situation that put the sector at dire state.
At present the country has only one nitrofuran test machine, which the exporters have installed in the office of Dept of Fisheries with their own investment. The government brought one such machine at a cost of Tk 5 crore which did not work any single day.
Exporters said they need at least two more bacteria test machines in Chittagong and Khulna to comply with the rules of EU and US.
President of Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters’ Association (BFFEA) Kazi Belayet Hossain said price of frozen foods fall by nearly 50 per cent in the world market due to the world economic recession. It has resulted liquidity crisis posing threat of closure of many factories.
He informed the commerce minister that out of 140 factories in the country, now 78 have license of which 40 are involved in frozen foods export. “The rest become sick due to lack of cooperation from the government,” Hossain said.
According to him export earnings from the sector rose by 5 per cent during the July-November period of this fiscal over corresponding period of last fiscal. Last fiscal the sector exported frozen foods worth US$534 million against US$600 million target.
Courtesy: nation.ittefaq.com
