A group of middlemen has been injecting water, jelly and glue-like substances into shrimp to boost their weight, and endangering overseas markets, spokesmen for the Bangladesh shrimp industry complain.
"We will be in trouble if our foreign buyers reject our consignments," said Kazi Belayet Hossain, owner of Chhobi Fish, a processed shrimp exporter, and also past president of the Bangladesh Frozen Food Exporters Association. Shrimp processors in Khulna, the main shrimp growing region, have already suspended some shipments, he told the Daily Star.
Traders inject green jelly, gum and other substances into the shrimps, said a senior official of the fisheries department in Khulna, asking not to be named. "We had earlier found barley and rice starch in the bodies of the shrimps," he said. Traders involved in the malpractice are more organized now, said asalesman of Haji Arif Fish, an agent of some processors.
We are very anxious," said a top executive of Modern Sea Foods Industries, another shrimp exporter. "It's not possible to detect the substances at the time of purchase," said the official, asking not to be named. The government is also aware of the problem, added Nittya Ranjan Biswas, principal scientific officer of the Department of Fisheries.
The fisheries authority and other law-enforcement agencies, including the Rapid Action Battalion, regularly carry out drives against the dishonest traders, Biswas said. This year, seven tons of shrimps injected with jelly and gum and other adulterants were destroyed, and mobile courts fined the traders Tk 3.3 million, he said. "We had earlier found barley and rice starch in the bodies of the shrimps." he noted.
