After work from the Ministry of Commerce, Foreign Affairs, Marine Fisheries Department [MFD] and the Pakistan’s Trade Mission in Brussels, the European Union has agreed to lift the ban and two of the Pakistani fishery-processing establishments have been allowed to export the fish products to European Union, reports Pakistan Observer.
Pakistan’s fishery establishments were delisted by the European Commission (EC) in 2007 after the EU inspectors found systemic enforcement failure and serious deficiencies in the sanitary quality of the fish. The EC held that re-listing would be done after the relevant stakeholders in Pakistan can demonstrate that effective actions have been implemented to improve the hygiene conditions in the fishery processing establishments.
The Government of Pakistan has been working with the stakeholders to bring in the desired improvements.
Immediately before the de-listing of Pakistani companies, Pakistan’s export of fish to the Europe amounted to 38.72 million in 2006, which was 23 per cent of Pakistan’s exports of fish to the world.
