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Frozen food assoc pledges to go by int’l labour laws

Star Business Report
The president of the trade body for the frozen food sector has pledged to abide by the international labour law and compliance standards for sustaining the export growth.
“On behalf of all frozen fish exporters, we assure you that exporters will comply with the parametres of labour laws for greater benefit of exports,” Kazi Belayet Hossain, president of the Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association (BFFEA), told a seminar in Dhaka yesterday
Organised jointly by Bangladesh Shrimp and Fish Foundation (BSFF) of the Department of Fisheries and BFFEA. the seminar on labour laws was attended by government functionaries, senior officials and representatives from international rights bodies.
Speakers at the programme stressed the need for complying with the labour law for enabling the frozen food sector earn increasing amount of foreign currencies in coming days.
Hossain Zillur Rahman, commerce adviser, Manik Lal Samaddar, chief adviser's special assistant for the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock, also spoke on the occasion.
The issue of compliance with the labour law has come to
the fore as American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) alleged that Bangladesh's two major export earning sectors --garment and frozen food have been plagued with the violation of labour rights.
"It's not an isolated case. Even in other sectors such issues may surface. We have to approach the whole issue with a proactive and problem solving attitude,” Commerce Adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman said.
Problems have deepened in the frozen food sector, which employs about one million people, when the European Union (EU) authority detected
hazardous elements, such as nitro furan, in the shrimp consignment imported from Bangladesh.
The export earnings from frozen food, country's second biggest foreign currency earner after garments, however, increased to $ 408.87 million in the July-March period of the fiscal year 2007-08, registering over 7 percent growth, from $381.02 million a year earlier, according to Export Promotion Bureau (EPB).
The commerce adviser, referring to the issues such as compliance with international labour and environmental standards, said, “Roads ahead may be bumpy. However, we should do our best to comply
with the rules to sustain the global market”.
Manik Lal Samaddar said factories must ensure labour rights and should not have any gender bias in terms of wage distribution.
He said the government will continue to monitor and examine the quality of exportable shrimps.
David John Welsh, country program director of American Centre for Labour Solidarity, a unit of AFL-CIO, said the organisation has no intention to call for a boycott of Bangladeshi shrimp products.
“We want the industry grows. And it should grow as it goes by labour law and compliance standard,” he said.