Phytosanitary Status

of Bangladesh

Md. Ayub Hossain

Consultant, SPCB Project, DAE

What is Plant Quarantine ?

Plant Quarantine" means the effort
to prevent entry, establishment or
spread of a foreign pest in the
country through legal restriction on
the movement of plant and plant
products,"

Why is Plant Quarantine ?

-

Our lives & well-being are based on plant

growth and cultivation

- Invasive alien species greatly endanger our

food production, medication etc.
- Expanding global trade, tourism & climate
change also increase the dangers
- The impact of invasive alien species has
serious implications for the economy and
ecology.

Plant Quarantine Service

Quarantine Service Started from 14 th
century
In 1799 USA introduced Quarantine Act.
In 1825 UK promulgated Quarantine Act.
In 1914 British Indian Governor General
Promulgated the Destructive Insects
and Pest Act
In 1951 FAO started International Plant
Protection Convention (IPPC)

Plant Quarantine Service

In 1966 Pakistan endorsed Destructive
Insects and Pests Rules
In 1974 Bangladesh
member of IPPC

became

the

In 1989 Bangladesh amended the

Destructive
Insects
and
Pests
Rules1966 and the rules is still on
Plant Quarantine Act-2011 has been
passed in 2011
New Rules yet to be formulated.

What is Phytosanitary ?
Phyto means Plant and Sanitary means health
so, Phytosanitary indicates concerning the health
of plants; especially the freedom from pest
which require quarantine.
-Phytosanitary Measures means any legislation,
regulation or official procedure having the
purpose to prevent the introduction and/or spread
of quarantine pests.

Phytosanitary contd
Phytosanitary procedure: Any official
method for implementing phytosanitary
measures including the performance of
inspections, tests, surveillance or treatments
in connection with regulated pests.
Phytosanitary
certification:
Use
of
phytosanitary procedures leading to the issue
of a phytosanitary certificate.

IPPC
(International Plant Protection
Convention)
The IPPC (1952) was first adopted by the FAO
Conference at its sixth session in December 1951 by
Resolution 85, and came into force in April 1952.
-With the purpose of securing common and effective action
to prevent the spread and introduction of pests of plants
and plant products, and to promote appropriate measures
for their control, the contracting parties undertake to adopt
the legislative, technical and administrative measures
specified in this Convention (IPPC) and in supplementary
agreements

NPPO
(National Plant Protection Organization)

Each contracting party shall make provision,

to the best of its ability, for an official national
plant protection organization with the main
responsibilities set out in this Article.
The issuance of certificates relating to the
phytosanitary regulations of the importing
contracting party for consignments of plants,
plant products and other regulated articles;

NPPO of Bangladesh
The Plant Quarantine activities of the
country at national level are under
the Director of Plant Quarantine Wing
of the Department of Agricultural
Extension under the Ministry of
Agriculture. He is serving as NPPO of
Bangladesh

Organizational Strength
Recently Plant Quarantine Wing of DAE has
been formed with headed by Director with
314 personnel.
We have 30 plant quarantine stations. Among
these stations:-Land border check post23,International air port-3,Sea port-2,River
port-1,Inland container depot (Railway)-1
Besides these PQ centers, the head quarter at
Dhaka carry out the regulatory functions and
it also serves as a PQ station.

Function Of Plant Quarantine Wing

Enforcement of Destructive Insects
and Pests
Rules, 1966 (Plant
Quarantine) amended up to July,
1989.

Incorporate new Rules

Policies on Plant Quarantine.

and

Promote
Plant
Quarantine
Activities at the Check Posts of the
Entry Points.

Issuance
Phytosanitary
of
Certificate
for
export
agricultural
of
products.

Issuance of Import Permit for

importing Agricultural Products.

Issuance of Release Order of

Plant
Commodities.

Recording & Interception of

Pests and

Main Import (Plant & Plant Products)

Rice, Wheat, Maize

Raw cotton
Fresh fruits
Pulses
Oil seeds
Spices
Timbers
Vegetables

Main Export (Plant & Plant Products)

Jute and Jute products
Tea
Tobacco
Vegetables , Fruits and Potato
Frozen vegetables, fruits
Food stuffs and Food items
Handicrafts, bamboo basket
Aromatic and fine rice and
spices

Challenges
Lack of awareness about plant quarantine system
among different stakeholders ( at policy level, high
officials, businessman and mass people level)
There is a clear structure and division of
responsibilities within the plant health service but the
NPPO is an independent body to carry out its tasks
effectively in line with the international standard.
The financial resources for the NPPO are provided
from the state budget. The NPPO is under the
Director General of the Department of Agricultural
Extension under the Ministry of Agriculture.

Export Supply Chain Management

Absence of direct linkage
Procure through middlemen / farmers
Transportation in bus top or loaded truck
Lack of supervised production, poor PHH
&
almost
absence
of
cool
chain
management
Graded & packed in the sheds of exporter
Traditional
baskets &
traceability

exporters packed in bamboo

2nd hand paper cartons. No
system in place.

Acute shortage of air cargo space

Constraints of exportation to EU
Exporters may be limited by
various ways

- Potato is ban item to EU Markets

-Threats of additional restriction
Example:
Citrus for canker
Vegetable for Thrips
Ground nut, chick pea for
Khapra beetle.
Mustard oil/Pickle for Urecic
Acid

Citrus Export (Constraints)

Additional declarations wanted by defra
- The fruits shall be free from peduncle and leaves
and the packaging shall bear an origin mark
-The fruits shall be free from Cercopora
angolensis and Guignardia citricarpa
-Official control of Xanthomonas campestris
(Bacterial canker)
- official monthly inspection during 3 months
prior to harvesting
- Fruits should be treated with sodium
orthophenyl- phenate (Article- 15 of EU directives)

Requirements in the EU markets

Produce may be subject to
random testing at point of entry,
MRLs
or
other
chemical
contaminants;

Detailed information and

records on primary production
and post-harvest handling to
satisfy
the
requirements
specified under EC/852/2004 and
EC/2073/2005 for ensuring food
safety of products of non-animal

Measures taken for Vegetable

&
Citrus Exportation
National & District committee
formed for acceleration of citrus
&
vegetable
exportation
comprises by DAE, BARI, BADC,
Hortex
Foundation
and
Exporters representatives

District committee has started

their work after receiving the
list of producers from Exporters

 Farm visit
Assessing garden/farm
Giving advice according to EU
Directives
Will certify the disease free
production
National
monitoring
activities.

committee
is
the
overall

Action Plan Taken to Reduce Interception

Production
Contract
through
Farming
Reduction
of
Fraudulent
certificate
Enhancement
of
inspection
facilities
Procurement
Equipment

of

Pest Listing and PRA

Laboratory

Background of SPCB Project

Bangladesh successfully entered in
the highly competitive international
export market. We are earning a
significant
amount
of
valuable
foreign currency through exporting
12-14
lakhs
metric
tons
of
agricultural products.
To expedite safe and successful
trade in developed and developing
world
we
must
meet
the
requirements
of
the
importing
country.

As a signatory to the IPPC we have

to follow the ISPMs adopted by the
IPPC for international trade. In
order to comply with the WTO-SPS
agreement we must update our
phytosanitary capacity on a regular
basis.
To ascertain the phytosanitary task
we need high degree of quality
control
equipment's,
trained
manpower
and
necessary
laboratory facilities in the field of

Many problems we are facing for

exporting citrus and some vegetables
to EU that we can not comply with the
EU phytosanitary regulations.
If
we
can
comply
with
the
International
phytosanitary
regulations, our agro-products export
will be more than doubled. Therefore,
our farmers will be benefitted to get
fair price and total production will be
increased.

Main Objective of SPCB

Project
Strengthening
phytosanitary
capacity in Bangladesh project
of DAE going on with following
objectives
Upgrading
laboratory

16

Quarantine

Capacity
development
relevant personnel
Established
central
house at Dhaka.

for
packing

 Conducting PRA & Listing of Pests

for 8 crops
Establishment of
7 Post
quarantine centers

entry

Construction of 6 office-laboratory
building and repair maintenance of
7 existing office-laboratory
Introduce
e-phytosanitary
certification system.

Activities done by Project

Trained
1200 quarantine related
personnel
Organize 8 awareness building workshop
on Phytosanitary measures
1(one) PRA(Pest Risk Analysis) already
done & 3(Three) PRA of Wheat, Potato &
Mango is in progress
Repair maintenance & extension of 7
Office cum laboratory building going on
Construction of 4 New office
laboratory building is in progress

cum

 Central packaging house construction process

is going on
Procurement of Laboratory equipment of
existing laboratory is going on
Quick testing kits of Potato Brown rot already
been collected and kits of Bacterial canker of
citrus and salmonella of Betel leaf is coming
soon for quick testing at Airport.
Handy microscope, Scanner, GCMS, Soft X-ray
machine procuring process is under way for safe
exportation & importation of Plant & Plant
Products.

Conclusion
To increase successful export capacity
building in addressed areas is of prime

interest.

To be practical, it is, therefore necessary to

try to comply with EU Directives,
international SPS rules and regulations,
both mandatory and
voluntary for
improving Citrus , fresh Vegetables & other
Plant and plant products export and import.

To expedite exportation and Safe

food
production
through
IPM
approach
created
a
great
enthusiasm among the producers
and consumers under the direct
and positive guidance of the
different Government agencies like
DAE.
Government
is
also
considering
about
GAP
for
exportable vegetables and fruits.

THANK YOU