Nearly 18% of the seafood exported from India is to the EU. The statistics clearly implies that a lot is at stake for the Indian seafood exporters, given the growing concerns in Europe about the presence of antibiotics in the Indian seafood shipments.

There was a high level delegation that had come to India in the last week of November to inspect the quality control processes that are in place. India’s Exports Inspection Council (EIC) and the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) together hosted the delegation as they visited and inspected the various fish landing and seafood processing centers in various parts of the country.

The team is said to have visited various facilities in Odisha, and even met the Chief Secretary of the state. Though the quality of aquaculture products met the required standards, the need for more pre-processing units was highlighted by the team. The team had also visited various seafood testing facilities in Chennai as well.

A leading news journal has reported that the delegation was evaluating the performance of the different authorities and entities in the India, in implementing the various controls and measures that check the presence of antibiotic, pesticide and other contaminants and residues that fall out of the EU recommended range.

The European commission is reviewing the information collected during the inspection.  The possibility of total ban of seafood product imports seems to be looming large with percentage of seafood imports inspected increasing from 10% to 50%. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration have their eyes open and may well make its own review and decision based on the EU report.