Tainted shrimp suspected to be from transhipments

From the sea: No antibiotics were found in shrimp samples collected from 2008 till now, says the Fisheries Department.

GEORGE TOWN: Shrimp exports from Malaysia, which face restrictions by the United States, only affect specific exporters and do not involve the totality of Malaysia’s aquaculture export produce, says the Fisheries Department.

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It explained that the shrimp samples, found by the United States to be tainted with dangerous antibiotics, could be through transshipments.“We suspect an element of transshipment, involving shrimp from foreign countries outside of our jurisdiction, that were imported and then re-exported to the United States, ” the department said in a statement.

It said that the US import alerts were only targeted at those exporters and did not represent the industry as a whole.

“It is understood that some of those exporters had already ceased operations, ” the department said.The Star reported yesterday that cultured shrimp tainted with antibiotics might still be found in wet markets.

Many Malaysian shrimp exporters have been placed under watch by the United States Food and Drug Administration, following the detection of two antibiotics, nitrofurans and chloramphenicol, in 44 shrimp shipment samples sent by numerous Malaysian exporters between 2009 and 2018.

However, the Fisheries Department maintained in the statement that its agricultural residue, aquaculture sanitary and phytosanitary monitoring systems have been able to maintain the biosecurity integrity of Malaysia’s shrimp production.

“A total of 2,466 shrimp samples were collected from 2008 till now and analysed by the Fisheries Biosecurity laboratory. No banned antibiotics were found in the shrimp, ” the department said.

It said the 1,200 shrimp farmers, 40 hatcheries and 15 processing factories were subject to the department’s monitoring systems and that they have Malaysian Good Agricultural Practices certificates.

It said Australia recognised its Fish Quality Certificates while the Singapore Food Agency had announced that Malaysia’s shrimp exports did not contain the banned antibiotics, nitrofurans and chloramphenicol.

“Since last year, the Agriculture and Agro-based Industries Ministry, through the Fisheries Department as the control against the use of banned antibiotics, had taken over the issuance of the Certificate of Origin for all locally-produced aquaculture produce, not including imported sources.

“Every aquaculture farm supplying to exporters are registered and subject to the department’s monitoring at least twice a year, ” it said.