2 lakh 31 thousand eggs were stuck in Benapole land port

A truck carrying 231,000 chicken eggs is stuck at Benapole land port. The shipment of this perishable product is now lying at the port due to lack of quarantine certificate for three disease tests.

Anwar Hossain, the owner of this Dhaka-based importing company called Hydroland Solutions, said, "The government issued a notification a week ago imposing conditions for attaching a new quarantine certificate on the imported eggs. We didn't know that. We were also not told where to get the quarantine certificate. On Wednesday (October 30) morning, the consignment of eggs arrived at the Benapole land port and was asked to submit the quarantine certificate. Now there is a risk of egg spoilage in the time it takes to check the sample and clear the egg shipment from the port. At the same time, a fee of at least five thousand taka per day will be charged.

It will take at least five days for the certificate to reach Benapole land port after product sample testing. The importing company has to pay daily charges for the shipment of goods to be detained at the port. Due to such complications, the officials of the importing company have said that they have lost interest in importing eggs.

Benapole land port and custom house sources informed that 2 lakh 31 thousand 800 chicken eggs imported from India by an organization called Hydroland Solutions of Dhaka arrived on Wednesday morning. Then while getting clearance from Benapole Quarantine Station, three disease-related quarantine certificates are sought from an ISO approved laboratory in Bangladesh; But the importer and the clearing and forwarding agent know nothing about this certificate.

When asked about this, Tapu Kumar Saha, the officer in charge of the quarantine station at Benapole port and the livestock officer of Sharsha Upazila, said that on October 22, the government issued a notification related to quarantine. It says, 'In case of egg import, an ISO certified lab should be tested for three diseases. The test can also be done from the official QC lab of Savar in Dhaka or any ISO certified private lab. It will take at least four days to complete the sample testing process. Without that certificate or the permission of a senior official, the shipment of eggs will not be released.

Earlier, egg consignments were released at Benapole land port only on presentation of certificate issued by Animal Quarantine and Certification Service (ER) of Kolkata, India. Importers feel that they will be harassed by imposing new conditions for issuing quarantine certificates.

Anwar Hossain, proprietor of Hydroland Solutions, said, 'After imposing the new notification, it was their moral responsibility to inform us at least by phone or e-mail from the quarantine station. Now if the consignment is not released without the certificate, then we will have no option but to send it back to India.'

Traders complain that new conditions are being imposed on imports to favor a particular syndicate. Various conditions are being given so that small traders cannot import eggs.

According to the sources of importers, the import price of each egg including customs duty is 8 taka 47 paisa. Added to this will be transportation, labor and wasteage costs. All in all, it will cost about 10 and a half taka per egg to reach Dhaka. They want to earn 20 to 30 paise per egg by selling to wholesale traders.
Meanwhile, due to shortage in the supply of eggs in the country's market, prices are still high at the consumer level.

According to Benapole Custom House sources, from September 8 to October 19 of the fiscal year 2024-25, a quarter of a million eggs were imported through Benapole port. Only one company imported these eggs. The Ministry of Commerce has allowed the import of eggs in favor of several other institutions; But no other company has imported eggs yet.

Hydroland Solutions imported these eggs from Sri Lakshmi Enterprises, a Kolkata-based exporter. C&F Agent Ratul Enterprises submitted the necessary documents to the Custom House for clearance of the consignment of eggs on their behalf.