National
International
safety measures to be implemented by seafood companies in India
The Technical Officer of the Marine Products Export Development Authority
(MPEDA), Mr VI George, in a recent interview, said that out of the 360
seafood processing plants currently functioning in the country, almost
all of them had implemented the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control
Point (HACCP) system. This included 149 companies approved for export
to European Union. Each of these have their own HACCP plans/manuals.
Of these, 165 HACCP manuals have been certified by Mpeda and 45 HACCP
compliance certificates have been issued. One of the reasons for issuing
less number of compliance certificates is that even though the implementation
of HACCP system is made mandatory, obtaining certification from Mpeda
is not mandatory.
Regulatory authority for food processing firms
The government plans to formulate a comprehensive law with a regulatory
authority for the food processing industry soon. Also, about 500 food
parks would be set up to ensure higher growth. Minister of State (independent)
for Agro and Food Processing Industries, Subodh Kant Sahay, at a Ficci
conference, said that the group of ministers under the chairmanship
of the agriculture minister, Sharad Pawar, would make all efforts to
ensure that an integrated food law is formed in a time-bound manner
with a single regulatory agency approach.
Development fund for food processing sector
The food processing ministry will be initiating
talks with financial institutions to support a development fund designed
to provide financial resources to the industry. The move is designed
to address the low ratio for conversion of food into processed items
in the country. The ministry had recently entered into MoUs with the
Export-Import Bank of India, ICICI Bank, National Bank for Agricultural
and Rural Development and Small Industries Development Bank of India.
The parliamentary standing committee has desired that similar MoUs should
also cover other schemes of the ministry at the earliest so that the
food processing sector is not starved of finance. The objective was
to facilitate provision of credit for projects in the food processing
sector in a focused manner. It also envisaged provision of financial
assistance to the small-scale food processing industries to enable them
to set up independent units in the sector.
Decline of 50 per cent in edible oil imports
The total imports of edible oil during the 3rd quarter,
May-July of the oil year, November 2003-October 2004, has reduced to
8,80,045 tonne as compared to 17,78,736 tonne in the previous year.
The import of edible oils during July 2004 is valued at 2,92,066 tonne
which is much lower than the 5,18,179 tonne imported in July 2003. According
to the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEAI), overall
imports of edible oils during November 2003-July 2004 is reported at
2,695,675 tonne as compared to 3,863,149 tonne, which reflects a reduction
by 30 per cent. The import during November 2003-March 2004 was similar
to that in the previous year. However, in the period April-July 2004,
imports reduced to 22,88,729 tonne.
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