Assam imposes ban on fish procurement from AP

Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh government began exercise to get the ban lifted by Assam government and other North Eastern states on the supply of fish from Andhra Pradesh, which is one of the largest exporters of fish in the country.

The farmers and fish traders received a big jolt when Assam and Meghalaya, due to negative propaganda, imposed ban about 10 days ago on sourcing of fish due to presence of Formalin contamination, which is very harmful to the consumers.

The AP farmers have very big market in Assam, West Bengal and other North Eastern states. Over 200 truckloads of fish aretransported from coastal districts to these states every day. Now, the traders and exporters have chosen other markets in the country.

As part of damage control exercise the state government deputed a team of officials from the department of fisheries, food control and animal husbandry to Assam. The team met the officials of Assam government, local minister and fish traders from July 13 to 16.

The team tried to explain fish sourced from Andhra Pradesh has no formalin contamination. The team had proved by using the kits developed by The Central Institute of Fisheries Technology (CIFT), Kochi, Kerala. The kits can prove in two minutes whether the fish was Formalin contaminated or not.

The state team met Rakesh Kumar, Secretary, Fisheries Department, Assam and explained the steps taken by the state government to educate the fish cultivators not to use formalin. The officials have tried to convince the Assam government to lift the imposed ban.

Former minister Dr Kamineni Srinivas, officials of fisheries and food safety departments spoke to the farmers at the state guest house on Wednesday and informed the state government is trying to convince the Assam government to lift the ban. Later, interacting with media, he said a delegation would be sent to Assam after July 20.

K Seetaramaraju, additional director, department of fisheries, said the Andhra Pradesh government has constituted Task Force teams consists of Food safety officers, veterinary assistant surgeons and assistant directors of fisheries// fisheries development officers to conduct random Formalin confirmation tests in the state. He said special kits were distributed to the Task Force teams to conduct the random tests and take action on the farmers, traders if the results proved positive.

He has made it clear AP farmers don’t use formalin, which is used as preservatives of some food items. He said the fish exporters take lot of care while packing the boxes and frozen boxes remain intact even after seven days of packing. He said lot of care is being taken in packing particularly air tight procedure is followed to prevent entering air into the boxes.

He suspected the local farmers and traders in Assam could have made damaging propaganda about Andhra Pradesh fish in order to prevent the sourcing from state and to encourage local farmers and traders.