Indian shrimp exports to Japan badly hit

KOLKATA, India, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- India's shrimp export to Japan has come under severe strain as Japan's ministry of health, labour and welfare has started detecting ethoxyquin, an antioxidant, in Indian shrimp consignments upon arrival, an exporter here said Wednesday.

Japan has rejected 19 shipments of black tiger shrimps from India, resulting in heavy losses to exporters and shrimp farmers, who are largely based in India's eastern states of Odisha and West Bengal.

Japan has suddenly reduced the ethoxyquin content in shrimps to 0.01 parts per million (ppm) without informing the Indian government or the exporters.

Taj Mohammed, owner of Kolkata-based seafood exporting firm ZA Foods, said, "It has come as a major blow to us. We have been exporting black tiger shrimps to Japan for 40 years but this had never happened."

Ethoxyquin is an antioxidant used as a food preservative and a pesticide.It is used as a preservative in pet foods. The seafood trade union has met India's commerce secretary S. R. Rao, asking him to initiate steps to sort out the issue and a meeting was also held with Leena Nair, chairman of Marine Products Export Development Authority.

T. R. Patnaik, Vice President of Seafood Exporters Association of India, said a delegation led by Leena Nair was likely to visit Tokyo to sort out the issue. "The 0.01 ppm ethoxyquin level is too small an amount. It should be more than 1. In fact, developed countries allow the use of ethoxyquin in fish meal at a level of 75 to 150 ppm," said Patnaik.

Importers have been asked not to ship shrimps until the issue is sorted out. Nearly 150 containers are lying in cold storages of West Bengal which are to be shipped for Japan.

Mohammed said around 10,000 to 12,000 tons of shrimps were yet to be harvested in Midnapore district of West Bengal. The farmers were panicky as prices had crashed, he said. Enditem.

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