The government’s efforts to convince Saudi Arabia to resume buying rohu fish appears to be paying off as the Middle Eastern country has agreed to send a delegate from its Food and Drug Authority to check on cold storage facilities and fish farms in Myanmar. Saudi Arabia, which imports about 20,000 tonnes of marine products from Myanmar annually, had stopped buying rohu fish since April last year after bacteria was found on the same fish species imported from Vietnam. Rohu, also known as rui, or roho labeo is a species of fish of the carp family found in rivers in South Asia, which is extensively used in fish farming. U Tun Lwin, deputy permanent secretary of the Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation Ministry, said it is trying its best to convince the Saudi Arabian government to resume buying rohu, including sending a delegation to the Middle Eastern country in December. We went to Saudi Arabia to urge it to resume buying rohu. We contacted the Saudi authorities via their embassy here about the resumption of imports but it didn’t work so we sent a mission directly to negotiate the export of rohu again, he told Myanmar Times on Wednesday. Saudi Arabia banned the import of rohu after it found bacteria in the fish it bought from Vietnam and despite clarifications from Myanmar officials that its rohu did not contain bacteria, a blanket ban was imposed. U Khin Zaw Oo, who led the mission to Saudi Arabia last month, met with a group of Saudi officials led by the vice president of the country’s Food and Drug Authority. Saudi Arabia agreed to send a delegation from its Food and Drug Authority to Myanmar to check cold storage plants, companies and fish farms, he said. They too have policy changes. The inspection will be conducted before we can be allowed to export again, U Khin Zaw Oo. As Myanmar is currently also exporting its marine products to European markets, it shouldn’t be difficult for us to meet Saudi Arabia requirements, U Tun Lwin added. Myanmar companies certainly meet standards because their products are being exported to the European Union. The Saudi product quality standards are not as strict as those for the EU. So, there won’t be any difficulty. They would be able to be resume exporting rohu after the inspection is done, he said. Saudi Arabia is among the top importers of Myanmar marine products, U Tun Lwin added. The main export markets of Myanmar marine products are Asian countries such as China, South Korea and Japan. The EU is a big export market as well.