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Licence of frozen food firm cancelled

3 US cos demand over $lm demurrage

By Inam Ahmed and R M Titumir
The government has cancelled the export licence of a frozen foods exporting firm, Aqua Foods Ltd for shipment of low quality shrimps to the USA and has referred the case to the Anti-Corruption Bureau.
The Commerce Ministry took the decision in the last week of January to save the country's second largest export earning sector from a possible ban in the US mar ket, according to a ministry source here.
The export import directorate in Chittagong has already cancelled the export certificate of Aqua Foods Ltd and the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) has notified the Bangladesh Bank and the
Anti-Corruption Bureau to take action against it.
The Frozen Foods Ex porters Association (FFEA) has also decided not to issue export certificate for any consignment of Aqua Foods, a source said.
The issue, arising out of complaints lodged by three US importers — Clouston Foods Group. Ocean Garden Products and Key Sea Foods — has threatened frozen food export from Bangladesh.
The Prime Minister s Secretariat, the Commerce Ministry, the US Embassy in Dhaka and the Bangladesh Embassy in Washington had contacted the EPB for settlement of the issue which is being viewed as critical for
the future of frozen food export from Bangladesh
Representatives of the three companies also came to Dhaka to settle their claims and had a series of talks with the EPB and the FFEA.
The three US companies have claimed demurrage of 10.57,601 US dollars from Aqua Foods ltd. Clouston Foods Group claimed 2.74.945 dollars. Ocean Garden Products 5.02.920 dollars and Key Sea Foods 2.79.736 dollars
After receiving the com-eaints. the EPB had asked e exporter to settle the .issue through a joint survey with the importers. But Aqua Foods wanted to settle the is-
sue through arbitration with the International Chamber of Commerce.
In defence. Aqua Foods had pointed out that its cargo had undergone pre-shipment inspection by Lloyds and so the quality of its items con form to the agreements with the importers.
But the EPB taking a tough stance on the issue, had rejected Aqua Food s explanation on the ground that pre-shipment inspection covers only ten per cent of the goods Moreover, since frozen shrimps are preserved in ice blocks these are not checked by melting the ice. leaving scope for fraud
The USA is the biggest importer of Bangladesh frozen foods taking 30 43 per cent of the export The coun trv exported frozen foods worth 79 32 million dollars to the US tn 1994 95 uhfch is 16 32 per cent high*; than the previous year s
The companies which have lodged the complaints are leading importers of frozen foods and also tnflu ential members of the Na tlona) Fisheries institute (NF1) of USA which can take up the matter with the gov eminent there said a source in the EPB