Myanmar to export farmed fisheries to EU

Myanmar will start export farmed fisheries to EU start from May. Rohu, Mrigal, Katla and Carfu fish species, river catfish, barbus fish, spotted prawn, white prawn and soft shell crab will be exported. Recently, the EU had only permitted to export fish which has caught in the wild. There are 23 factories which export fish caught in the wild to EU, 17 factories will be export farmed fishery products. “We have been trying to export farmed fisheries to the EU since 2014. It is a difficult process and only a few countries in Asia have permission to do so. Wild fish exports to the EU make up only 3 percent of total fisheries exports. If farmed fish products can be exported, Myanmar will be able to increase its total marine exports to the EU,” said U Thet Naing. The EU maintains high food quality standards that limit the number of fishery products it imports from overseas. “We need to continue raising our capacity to monitor whether farmed fish contain chemical residue. In Myanmar, we are still unable to test for chemical residue in our marine products,” said Daw Toe Nanda Tin, vice chair of the Myanmar Fisheries Federation. Out of 28 member states of EU, Myanmar now exports wild fish to the UK, Italy, France, Cyprus, Netherlands, Sweden, Greece, Belgium and Germany. Between April 2017 to the end of March 2018, Myanmar exported more than 10,600 tonnes of marine products worth US$20 million to the EU.