That all does not appear to be going well at the Karachi Fish Harbour is indicated in a report, about a warning of strict action, which Sindh Fisheries Minister Sardar Manzoor Ali Khan Panwhar is stated to have given during a surprise visit to the fish harbour recently.
The minister, who is also the Chairman of Fisheries Co-operative Society (FCS), visited the place for on-the-spot inspection of hygienic conditions at its auction hall. Taken aback by the prevailing unsatisfactory conditions, he not only issued the warning but also identified the areas where improvement is immediately needed.
He is also reported to have asked the KFHA Managing Director and senior officials of FCS to take all possible steps to improve hygienic conditions at the harbour to the desired extent, while also urging other stakeholders to extend their support and co-operation in maintaining the status of KFH as an export-oriented entity.
Understandable, indeed, should be the minister's concern over the lack of required sanitary conditions at the Fish Harbour and his remarks regarding enough room being there for improvement.
This, of course, has reference to the vital role that belongs to KFH in exploiting the country's tremendous potential in seafood exports. As for the unending threat of interruption in our seafood export, it will be recalled that a serious warning was given by the European Commission health authorities, two years ago, following detection of a high level of chloramphenicol (an antibiotic) in a consignment of frozen shrimps exported by an approved processing plant. Although the test for the antibiotic is not mandatory. This was indication enough of the EU authorities' insistence on hundred percent guarantee of preventive measures to ensure against contamination.
At the same time, it also explained the anxiety of the Export Promotion Bureau on that occasion to provide the needed equipment and accessories to ensure against any fresh threat to our exports to EU.
EPB had prompted the Export Development Fund to ask the government for Rs 3.5 million to help the Marine Fisheries Department add equipment and accessories for detecting chloramphenicol in seafood. It will thus be seen that non-compliance with the rigid requirements of EU can still prove disastrous for the country's seafood exports.
For one thing, the EU countries are the bulk importers of our seafood, and Pakistan has already suffered heavily from lack of proper attention to the requirements of strict hygienic standards associated with exports to the EU.
Our past experience should suffice to convince one that removal of any EU ban imposed on import is a hard a nut to crack.
For it was only after an EU team's extensive inspection of preventive measures against health hazards and upon subsequent agreement with the Marine Fisheries Department that the restrictions imposed earlier were lifted.
Since most of the big seafood importing countries insist upon high standards of hygiene in processing of seafood for export, we are supposed to have learnt the right lessons from the serious setback suffered in the past due to failure to come up to their expectations.
This has special reference to the loss of one of the most lucrative markets in the European Union, the restoration of which could be possible only after a great deal of persuasion and corrective measures for the adoption of which they extended a helping hand too.
Although the situation on the export front has substantially improved since then, the threat of bad days still happens to be very much there. This may be the reason behind the minister's warning.
In fact, the challenge is too big to warrant any complacency in the matter. We should not only keep guarding the sanitation front at the harbour but also try for the best in processing our sea food exports.
Moreover, in view of the stiffening competition in the world market, it will be in the fitness of things also to catch up fast with adoption of the most modern and sophisticated systems for processing to enable us to stay in competition in more challenging days ahead.
This much for the apparent failure of the KFH in maintaining the prescribed sanitary conditions of which the Provincial Minister has taken due notice.
However, the report about the minister's surprise visit has also pointed out that the FCS has reportedly stopped paying salaries to its 280 newly confirmed employees for the last six months.
In this regard, it has also been mentioned that the affected employees were hired on contract basis in August 2003 in connection with improvement in harbour conditions, and that they were regularly paid until their confirmation, after which their payments seem to have gone in arrears.
Needless to point out, lapse on this count may have something to do with financial constraints or administrative bottlenecks, or both.
Nevertheless, it will be in the fitness of things to ensure best of performance at KFH in the country's larger economic interest.
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