Kochi, Nov. 20 The Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) is fully geared to meet the January 1 deadline for providing catch certification for all seafood exports to the European Union.
“We have identified 51 major fish harbours and landing centres across the Indian coastline, held meetings with all stake holders, prepared a time-bound operational schedule and is getting the system and processes into position,” said senior MPEDA sources.
The exporters are also a relieved lot. “We have been given to understand that catch certificates would be required only for the raw material procured after January 1, 2010.
This means that we can continue to export from the products caught till the end of December and the trans-shipment time will not be taken into account,” said Mr Anwar Hashim, President of the Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI).
The 51 harbours and landing centres identified by MPEDA cover the major fish production centres and it would be extended progressively as the programme gets under way.
Bulk of the exports to EU would be covered from the initial phase.
Meetings with exporters and all stakeholders have been convened and a programme has been prepared taking into view the misgiving and apprehensions of all the concerned parties. The systems component, which includes identifying and adapting the right software, is falling into position.
The sequential process schedule would be a non-discriminatory and transparent process. MPEDA would create a questionnaire that would seek certain mandatory questions on the source and process of the catch meant for exports.
The answers would have to be filled by the fishermen/agent selling the seafood to the exporter and submit it to the Port Officer of the region and recorded on the computer. The exporter, in turn, would be given a similar questionnaire and if the two replies are found to match, the catch certification would be provided.
After the extension of the system and processes to the 51 fish harbours and major landing centres, the gargantuan task may not prove to be all that difficult, said the MPEDA sources. Though the total fish landing along the country’s coastline is a staggering six million tonnes a year, just over two per cent of it or 1.5 lakh tonnes, gets exported to the EU.
This would constitute around five per cent at three lakh tonnes in live weight, which would require the certification.
Given the predominance of EU in India’s marine export basket, MPEDA has not lost sight of the importance of this critical segment. According to the marine products export figures available for the first half of the current fiscal, the EU constituted over 28 per cent in volume of marine products exports.
More importantly, the region accounted for over 32 per cent of the rupee and dollar earnings. It is still the biggest export destination for Indian marine exports and the nearest rival Japan is a distant second accounting for 15 per cent of the foreign exchange earnings.
Source : Business Line