The European Union said yesterday that South-East Asia needed to improve its food safety standards to prevent the region’s exports of fish and aquatic products from being shipped back or destroyed under tough new laws.

“We would like to see a number of improvements,” Patrick Deboyser, health and food safety expert in the European Union’s mission in Thailand, told reporters in Manila.

A team of European health and food safety experts was in the Philippine capital to brief members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) on new food safety standards and regulations adopted in Europe earlier this year.

The European Union is the world’s largest importer of fishery products, buying around 1.3 billion euros ($1.6 billion) worth of fish and fish products in 2005 with demand growing at an average rate of 4.4 percent every year.

EU buys most of its fish products from Norway but about 8 percent come from ASEAN, particularly Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia.

Deboyser said EU consumers have generally higher expectations about food safety and the EU would block fish shipments that did not meet requirements on levels of chemical residue, bacteria and other contaminants.

Luc Vandebon, EU deputy head of mission in Manila, said a 3.1 million euros technical assistance programme had been launched to help train and equip the Philippines to comply with European standards.

EU officials said the Philippine fisheries board lacked resources such as staff and equipment to check on residues.