Fruit and vegetable exporters will not get the vital phytosanitary certificates for their produce unless they register with the Plant Protection Wing, a senior official of the agriculture ministry said yesterday.

The phytosanitary certificate (PC), or the plant health certificate, is one of the key documents for exports of agricultural produce.

"We have introduced the registration of exporters as we are failing to ensure the standards that the European Union wants," said Anwar Faruque, additional secretary of the agriculture ministry.

He made the disclosure at a programme at the Department of Agricultural Extension, where 34 exporters were handed over registration certificates.

Between January and August this year, the EU rejected 160 consignments from Bangladesh for presence of pest or lack of PCs. The number is 76 percent of the total rejection notifications the country faced in 2014. The use of fake PCs and doctoring of such documents by a section of errant exporters were the other reasons behind the EU's rejections.

As per the conditions of registration, exporters will have to grow pest- and disease-free fruits, vegetables and betel leaves through contractfarming.

Exporters will also have to get certification from the upazila agriculture officers that the produce collected from the contract growers is free from pest.

The plant health certificates will be issued based on physical inspections by officials of plant quarantine stations.

Faruque asked exporters to select major exportable items and choose zones for safe and pest-free cultivation of the selected fruits and vegetables.

They will also get the necessary support from the agricultural officials, he said.

"We want to ensure production safe food not only for export but also for domestic consumption. So, we will gradually go for zonebased cultivation of fruits and vegetables."

At the programme, a committee consisting of representatives from the DAE and the private sector was formed to chalk down a list in 15 days of the major exportable items

and the zones for their cultivation.

DAE Director General Md Hamidur Rahman said his office encourages and trains farmers to grow safe food.

He called upon the exporters to build ties with the farmers, to whom the DAE provides various training on crop production through various projects.

Contract farming and blockbased cultivation of selected items will facilitate exporters to get an exportable item in bulk, Rahman added.

SM Jahangir Hossain, president of Bangladesh Fruits, Vegetables and Allied Products Exporter's Association, said the association has

selected 20 spots to grow exportable items through contract farming.

He urged the agriculture ministry to introduce night shifts as well to issue PCs at the airport.

"Sometimes orders come in at the eleventh hour. But the exporters cannot get PCs at that time as the quarantine office issues PCs only during the day."

Misdeclaration will be checked if PCs are issued in two shifts, he added.

The country earned $ 153 million last fiscal year from exports of fruits, vegetables, and cut flower and foliage, down 38 percent year-on-year, according to Export Promotion Bureau.