Bangladesh halts shrimp exports as EU finds harmful drug

(DHAKA) - Bangladeshi fish exporters, already hit by the global economic crisis, said Wednesday they had temporarily stopped shipping fresh water shrimps after a harmful drug was found in some shipments.

The voluntary six-month suspension was imposed after European Union nations returned 50 container loads over the past eight months because tests showed traces of the banned antibiotic nitrofuran, a top exporter said.

"It's a blow to our industry but we had to take the drastic measure and find out how nitrofuran is entering the shrimps, their farms and hatcheries," said Kazi Shahnewaz, who heads the Bangladesh Frozen Food Exporters Association.

"If the drug is not eliminated, the EU and the United States may impose a total ban on all types of our shrimps. Already we are hit hard by the global recession. A total ban would be a catastrophe," he told AFP.

Nitrofuran is an antibiotic drug commonly used to treat diseases in food-producing animals.

Western countries do not allow the import of any animal-based food, including fish, in which the drug is found as it can cause cancer and other diseases in humans.

Shrimps are Bangladesh's second-largest export item after garments but as the global economic meltdown worsens in the key export destinations of Europe and North America, demand has fallen for them.

In the first nine months of the current fiscal year, which ends on June 30, shrimp shipments slid 13 percent to 356 million dollars.

The exporters have asked the government to bail them out, saying the livelihoods of many of the country's 1.5 million farmers are at stake.

Shahnewaz said 50,000 farmers in the impoverished nation of 144 million people would be affected by the export ban.