Mon State fishery department’s first auction of smuggled fish hindered by police health warning

By Naw Say Phaw Waa   |   Tuesday, 19 May 2015

A consignment of smuggled seafood captured by a customs and police team in Mawlamyine has been handed over for resale by the local fisheries department for the first time.

U Kyaw Tun Nyo, assistant chief officer of Mon State Department of Fisheries, told The Myanmar Times on May 16 that this was the first time a consignment of contraband had been auctioned off to a local supplier for resale by the fisheries department.
In the past, local courts had handled the auctions of smuggled fish products.
Police at Myinetharyar, Mawlamyine, Mon State, said the contraband seized on May 7 in Taung Wai district, Mawlamyine, amounts to 250 boxes of frozen shrimp and fish from Thailand, worth an estimated K8.757 million (US$8090) – though the bids that were submitted have valued the contraband at half that amount.
The local Department of Fisheries office called the area distributors and invited them to submit bids, which were due on May 8. Five local firms submitted tenders for the consignment, with the winner to be allowed to sell the fish to local customers.
The winner will walk off with K4.75 million worth of frozen perch, shrimp and prawns, weighing about 3600 kilograms, as that was the highest bid, said a fisheries department spokesperson. The department had originally valued the haul at K8.757 million.
The lower valuation came partly due to health concerns over the quality of the fish.
“This frozen fish is not suitable for eating,” said sub-inspector U Aung Thiha Kyaw of Myinetharyar police. He said that after their arrest, one or more suspects had been questioned by police, the fisheries department, township officials, customs and special branch. A driver, U Than Htet Oo, has been charged under the import-export law.
Fisheries department deputy chief officer U Soe Nyunt dismissed the police warning, saying, “We haven’t checked the food at the laboratory yet because the local people have eaten most of it. If it’s not rotten, we decided it was suitable to eat. What the police said is not our concern.
“The police burned nine viss [14.4 kilograms or 32.4 pounds] of chicken livers and gizzards on May 8 but transferred the fish and shrimp to the Department of Fisheries,” he added.
U Kyaw Htun Nyo of the fisheries department said smugglers were attracted by the price differential available in Mawlamyine, which often attracts higher prices. “That’s the reason the cheaper product is imported here,” he said.
Usually, captured contraband is handed over to the court for safeguarding, but this was the first time smuggled fish had been handed over to the fisheries department, said U Soe Nyunt.
“Since the smuggling deprives us of taxes, we decided to put the contraband out to tender under the direction of the Mon State government,” he said.
Fisheries have traditionally been one of the largest export earners for the country, though many fish traders say ocean stocks are declining and production at fish farms are not keeping up with the declines, leading to a fall in exports.

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