MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

EC delegation checks Uruguay's fisheries plants and vessels

A European Union sanitary mission is scheduled to begin this week the auditing of Uruguay's fishing industry, --processing plants and vessels--, announced Monday Daniel Montiel, head of the country's Aquatic Resources Department, DINARA.

The European veterinarians together with their Uruguayan counterparts will jointly survey the thirteen Uruguayan fish industry processing plants, which at one time had EU certification and will later write a report for consideration of EC Agriculture and Fisheries authorities. If approved, Uruguay will be able to resume fish industry exports which were cancelled a few months ago because Uruguayan authorities had not complied with regular reports on the sanitary condition of plants and vessels. The EU vets will check that Uruguayan plants employ water systems with the adequate temperature and that labs comply with the necessary technical conditions to detect heavy metals and other contaminating elements. Uruguay in 2007 exported fish products to the EU valued in 75 million US dollars which is between 37 and 40% of the country's total 200 million US dollars overseas sales from the sector, said Mr. Montiel. DINARA's director said that the main reason for the EC delegation visit was that some of the Uruguayan processing plants were not complying with the new sanitary controls the EU begun implementing in 2006. However from the private sector some companies blame the change of technical staff in DINARA for the delays in complying with the new regulations.