EU TO ASSESS MEASURES ON SEAFOOD PRODUCTS

By Tengku Noor Shamsiah Tengku Abdullah
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 13 (Bernama) -- A new mission comprising European Union
(EU) veterinary experts will be here in early March to assess measures taken by
the Malaysian authorities for local seafood products to conform to the EU
standards.

The mission would assess the measures taken to address the shortcomings
highlighted by the 2008 inspection mission, said ambassador and head of
delegation of the European Commission in Malaysia, Vincent Piket.

"We are hopeful that the measures taken by the authorities can lead to a
resumption of the export of Malaysian seafood to the EU," he told Bernama here
Tuesday.

The EU suspended the import of seafood products from Malaysia following a
visit by officials from its Food and Veterinary Office to the farms and
processing centres in April last year.

The self-imposed ban was implemented last June when the EU health
authorities found unsatisfactory conditions at local aquaculture farms,
seafood-processing facilities, fishing vessels and fish-landing areas.

Rather than risking a total EU ban that would have been gazetted into law,
the government imposed a ban until the next inspection on the seafood product
industry.

Piket said during 2008, the European Commission sent three expert missions
to Malaysia to help the authorities in developing the corrective measures.

On Sunday, it was reported that the Health Ministry had assured the seafood
product industry that the government was prepared to resume exporting frozen
food to the EU after March this year.

Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai was reported as saying that his side had
appealed to the EU to send their officials here to inspect the local frozen
food industry.

Liow said through the cooperation of the health and agriculture and
agro-based industry ministries, Malaysia was expected to resume supplying frozen
food to the EU.
-- BERNAMA