RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has reportedly lifted ban on import of shrimps from Pakistan after extensive deliberations of concerned Ministries and Chairman Pak-Saudi Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PSJCCI) with Saudi ambassador to Pakistan. “Minister for Ports and Shipping, Mir Hasil Bizenjo, other relevant Ministries and I made co-ordinated efforts to restore export of Pakistani shrimps to Saudi Arabia. Saudi ambassador to Pakistan also played his role in lifting of ban,” said PSJCCI president Mian Mehmood. The decision of Saudi Arabian government would certainly send a positive message to the shrimp exporters whose business suffered after a ban on exports, he added.
A few months ago, Saudi Arabia had slapped a ban on import of disease-plagued aquaculture shrimps after white spot disease developed in white-leg shrimp species from Pakistan Earlier, reports appeared in this newspaper in April this year revealing that World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) on detection of the disease prompted the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) to place a ban on shrimp import from Pakistan as a precaution.
Saudi Arabian embassy to Pakistan had written a letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that SFDA has notified its inspection authorities to stop inspection of imported food of fresh, chilled or frozen shrimp consignments from Pakistan until stabilisation of health conditions. However, Marine Fisheries Department and Federal Ports and Shipping Ministry sought help from the Commerce Ministry to help Pakistan get delisted from the OIE’s index of countries from which shrimps had been detected with the white spot disease.
Pakistan exported 189 metric tons of shrimp to Saudi Arabia worth $2.175 million in 2015. The total seafood export was 2,016 metric tons valued at $7.494 million. When contacted Chairman Pakistan Fisheries Association said that Saudi Arabia is a big and attractive market for Pakistani shrimp, adding that an inquiry had also been conducted in this regard which proved that white spot disease was linked to Pakistani aquaculture shrimps. In reply to another question, he said that the Saudi ambassador to Pakistan had promised to resolve the issue.
