With an aim to boost agricultural and other processed food exports, the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) has started issuing ‘Fit for Human Consumption’ certificate, which is also known as a health certificate, as per global standard.
Welcoming the government move exporters said that this step is tremendously helping them to increase export of those products which needed such certification for long.
According to the EPB, some Asian and European countries, like Taiwan and Britain seek ‘Fit for Human Consumption’ certificate while importing agricultural and food items from Bangladesh and some other countries.
"We're now exporting agricultural and processed food items without facing any question from the importing countries as EPB is now issuing 'Fit for Human Consumption' certificate as per their requirements. It is really a very effective step to boost exports of agricultural and processed food items," said Shahidullah, owner of Karnophuli Agro-Products Limited.
Shahidullah said his company exports products ranging from food, agro- products and fish and he often faces problems in exporting the agro -products especially to Europe because they raise questions about the quality of the products.
"Now they are accepting agro products from Karnophuli Agro-Products Limited without any question as we provide EPB's 'Fit for Human Consumption' certificate as per their requirements," he added.
“As per the guideline of the government, the EPB conducts test of the items at a government-designated laboratory and then issue the certificate within next seven days of the application. If the results are in line with the specifications, we provide the certificate,” said an EPB official.
EPB is now receiving applications from exporters as the commerce ministry approved the standard operating procedure (SOP) in this regard recently, he added.
Interested exporters need to pay Tk 500, including value-added tax and advance income tax for the test. For a duplicate certificate, they need to pay Tk500 extra.
“EPB had a meeting with officials of the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) and the Bangladesh Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR) recently for carrying out the test,” said the EPB official.
A commerce ministry source said an exporter recently received an order to export sesame oil to Taiwan. The importer informed us that his consignment must have ‘Fit for Human Consumption’ certificate but the exporting company could not manage it even after contacting the BSTI, BCSIR and Bangladesh Food Safety Authority (BFSA).
The exporter later applied with the commerce ministry for the certificate.
The ministry held a meeting with representatives of the BSTI, BCSIR and BFSA and said they are capable of the testing but they are not authorised to issue such certificate.
Then the commerce ministry decided to set up a separate public body to certify the export products. The EPB will issue the certificates until the inception of the particular institution.
The EPB said the export of various agricultural and food products would require sanitary and phytosanitary certification as usual. The exporter will apply for the human consumption certificate if the importer specifies it.