With barely three weeks to go, there remain several obstacles before the catch certification directive issued for seafood exports to the European Union comes into force. Working against a deadline of January 1, 2010, there are hardly 10 working days before the European Commission secretariat and offices shut down for the long Christmas and New Year holidays, several seafood exporters pointed out.
To start with, the exporters confirmed that the EU is still to be officially intimated about the agency that will issue catch certificates for seafood exports to that region. All the other major seafood exporting countries to the EU, Russia, Vietnam and Peru have officially notified the secretariat about the agencies which are to issue these catch certificates.
In a communication dated December 7, the Europe-based Seafood Importers and Processors Alliance said that important exporting countries such as India were still not listed on the EU-IUU (illegal unregulated unreported) Web site. However SIPA said that it had inside information that for all these countries, their application for IUU regulations were in the pipeline.
As the New Year deadline approaches, several exporters expressed apprehensions about despatching the seafood caught after the certification becomes mandatory on January1 for exports to EU. At stake is the country's one and half billion dollar-plus seafood exports. EU continues to dominate Indian export basket and accounts for 32.8 per cent of the seafood export earnings, according the preliminary figures available for the first half of the current fiscal.
Exports from the western coast are likely to be affected the most since it is home to some of the richest fishing grounds of the country. Even as the Eastern coast houses some of the most important aquaculture sites, the Western coast continues to depend heavily on the catch from the seas and accounts for the bulk of seafood delicacies like prawns, squids and cuttlefish caught from the seas.
A Gujarat-based seafood exporter said that since the first draft notification was issued by the EU in 2008 that was followed by the final notification, the Government had sufficient time to get its act together. Yet, he was still hopeful that his exports will continue unhindered even after the New Year deadline. Almost 95 per cent of his exports consist of shrimps, squids and cuttlefish which are targeted at the EU markets.
Exporters are also worried that they may not enjoy a seamless transition from the pre-catch certification era to a post-event era. While the bulk of the systems and processes for implementing the catch certification norms are reportedly ready, they still fear initial glitches could hinder their consignments, even after the EU is notified of the agency which is to extend the certification and other processes and systems are in place. Timely notification of the agency and preliminary trial runs of the procedures would have enabled a smooth transition into the new regulatory regime, they said.
Source : Business Line