IT is reported that fruit and vegetables consignments shipped from Bangladesh continue to be turned down from the Port of entry of the European countries due to non-compliance of standard quality requirement set for the exportable goods. Between January and July, the EU, which is the major destination of fresh fruits and vegetables, has reportedly rejected 143 export consignments due to pest and bacteria infections and absence of Phytosanitary Certificates (PC). Using of fake hygienic certificates and tempering export documents a section of errant exporters sent shipments and the poor monitoring of concerned agencies allowed the room for making faulty shipment only to be returned down causing humiliation to the nation. Earlier in March, the European Commission had warned a ban would be imposed if corrective measures were not taken before September 30, but no visible measure so far in sight while the huge number of consignments that were turn down from European ports have only tarnished the image of the country that Bangladesh is not as a good trading partner.
The errant exporters by doing this have prolonged export suspension of fruits and vegetables and they must be punished. The January-July data on rejections is 67 percent of the total rejection notifications issued by the EU’s concerned authorities in 2014. The stakeholders now fear the EU might restrict the entry of vegetables from Bangladesh altogether if the compliance level does not quickly improve. The EU has already extended a ban on betel leaf imports from Bangladesh until June 2016, in addition to listing six vegetables from Bangladesh as critical items.
Needless to say that the government in May this year shared an action plan with the EU promising to ensure shipment of vegetables and betel leaf through contract farming arrangements between exporters and local farms. The EU found the action plan incomplete without guarantee on effective application and enforcement. The Ministry also decided to include certain security features, but there is hardly any progress so far.
Leading exporters of fresh vegetables and fruits held the view that vegetable exports without PC or with fake PCs is taking place repeatedly in absence of coordination among government agencies. The problem could be checked if the plant quarantine station officials remain present in the cargo build-up area, where exportable items are kept and finally packaged for loading on planes.
The EU is very accommodative to Bangladesh as it allows duty free export of everything except arms and drugs. But they cannot be expected to compromise in people’s health issue. So it is our responsibility to develop the country’s export as per their specifications and quality standard. Unfortunately, no regulatory body can be trusted to do their job. Corruption is vitiating competence every section of the government.
So the exporters have to regulate themselves and do their business in foreign market honestly.
