Antibiotic Residues: Shrimp Exports Face Challenge After Rejection in EU Market

Vijayawada: Shrimp exports from India face rejection in the European market due to the presence of antibiotic residues in them.

Recently, seven containers of shrimps exported from Odisha failed quality tests due to presence of antibiotic residues in them in the European market, leading to their rejection.

This came at a time when shrimp exports from India are facing odds due to imposition of a 50 per cent import duty by the US president Donald Trump from August, the rejection of shrimp consignments.

Exporters say that alternatively they started looking for markets in Europe. However, “In a bid to make quick money, some exporters ignored the high quality standards for the consignments aimed for the European market and faced rejection.”

They fear that if the present adverse trend continues, the Indian shrimp exporters may lose the European market too, which may seriously affect India’s shrimp export potential and its foreign exchange earnings.

Exporters say that some 50 per cent of the whole consignment of shrimps exported to the European market undergoes quality check. This means, every second container gets checked for quality.

They fear that losing such a potential market may cause a price crash, also affecting the whole chain of businesses dealing with exports.

Exporters say that the US market is relatively liberal when compared with the European market in terms of quality checks. “We are eagerly waiting for the US administration to announce withdrawal of a 25 per cent penal tariff. Likely, the Ukraine war might end through negotiations and India would trim its purchases of crude oil from Russia,” they say.

As for Andhra Pradesh, the quality checks on shrimps for export are stringent. There may be no chance of these having antibiotic residues. Such contamination takes place in the farms and at hatcheries.

By now, all the shrimp exports to the US market have been closed with the X-Mas holiday season approaching there. Meanwhile, with a repeat of cyclonic storms and prevalence of inclement weather conditions here, there are no shrimp stocks for exports to the overseas, giving some relief to the exporters.

Member of the all India seafood exporters association, Thota Jagdeesh, said, “Rejection of shrimp exports from India in the European market is a major concern to all exporters here. This may badly affect the entire exports to the international market unless we ensure quality to our shrimps.”