The EU Food and Veterinary Office (FVO) team, which visited the country from 24 March to 1 April, has released a report describing the progress.

“Improvements were seen in the residue monitoring system particularly in the laboratories,” said the FVO’s draft report. “In contrast to the findings in 2010, the analytical methods used for the residue monitoring programme in crustaceans and for the pre-export testing are now validated and fit for the target purpose.”

Last week, the FVO sent a copy of the draft report to the Department of Fisheries (DoF), informed Financial Express Bangladesh.

As well, the EU reduced its list of recommendations from last year’s 12 to four.

“We have improved much in all our aquaculture compliances that the last EU FVO team recommended, and it is reflected in the draft report,” commented Shamsul Kibria, joint secretary of the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock (MoFL).

“We will take measures to comply with the four recommendations, suggested in the draft report, within this year. We will provide our response to the EU authority regarding our initiatives to fulfill those recommendations by this month, and we will also request them to withdraw the stringent testing measure,” he added.

According to exporters, whether the EU fish farming authority downsizes testing requirements to 20 per cent — a requirement applied by the EU on Bangladeshi shrimp export on 15 July 2010 — is basically contingent on the information presented in the report.

Bangladeshi exporters and officials believe the team’s visit earlier this year is vital for the shrimp industry, as it would determine how well the sector will fare.

Local exporters received only four rapid alerts last year compared to 54 in 2009, which demonstrates the efficiency of Bangladeshi businesses insofar as compliance to importers’ demands, an exporter expressed.

The EU is Bangladesh’s main shrimp buyer at nearly 50 per cent of the shipments made in 2010.