Agriculture Ministry forms committee to ensure safety codes of fish exports

The Agriculture Ministry has formed a committee to inspect fisheries and ensure safety of fish exports after Saudi Arabia banned imports of Egyptian fish last week. The committee will be enforcing new quality control measures laid out by Saudi authorities to resume importing farmed fish from Egypt, said Deputy Agriculture Minister Mona Mehrez. Apparently these conditions include granting the General Organization For Veterinary Services full authority to inspect and certify fish exports, she added. While the ministry appears to be proactive in attempting to resolve the issue, other statements indicate that officials are angry about the UN FAO report warning of a tilapia lake virus outbreak among Egyptian farmed fish. Khaled Hosny, head of the General Authority for Fish Resources Development, lashed out at UN FAO, saying that Egypt should have been consulted before the report was issued, Al Shorouk reports.