The Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission has recently made a suggestion that the country should approve commercial production of Vannamei shrimp, a non-native species of shrimp, as it had become difficult to stay competitive on the global market through export of the local variety. The BTTC in a letter on August 19 suggested that the commerce ministry should request the fisheries and livestock ministry to allow commercial production of Vannamei shrimps in the country within short time so that it could be exported at competitive prices on the global market. The commerce ministry on September 13 informed the finance ministry about the recommendation made by the BTTC about Vannamei cultivation. The BTTC in its suggestion said that the consumption pattern of shrimps had changed on the global market and 70 per cent of the total demand for the item had now been grabbed by the Vannamei variety due to its lower production cost. Demanding immediate approval for commercial production of Vannamei from the government, shrimp exporters said that they had completed the first phase of a pilot project on commercial production of the variety. Referring to the result of the pilot project, they said that 5,000-8,000 kilograms of the Vannamei variety could be produced on per hector, which was 20 times higher than the production rate of the local Black Tiger shrimp and freshwater prawn. In 2020, the government allowed Shushilan, a non-government organisation in Khulna, and Agri Business Enterprise in Chattogram to launch two separate pilot projects for introducing the Vannamei variety under the supervision of the Department of Fisheries and the Bangladesh Fish Research Institute.
The Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association in a letter sent on September 1 requested fisheries and livestock minister SM Rezaul Karim to approve commercial production of the Vannamei variety on the basis of the pilot project report prepared by a team of the Department of Fisheries. The letter said that the result of the pilot project was satisfactory as the production rate was found to be 8.62 tonnes per hector. To increase export earnings from shrimp, the government should allow the commercial production of the Vannamei variety immediately, the letter said. It also said that out of 15 shrimp producing countries in Asia, all others for except Bangladesh are producing the Vannamei variety. ‘The fisheries and livestock ministry is delaying the approval process for commercial production of Vannamei in the country without any reason,’ BFFEA president Md Amin Ullah told New Age on Monday. After completion of the first phase of the pilot project, the Department of Fishers in a letter issued on September 19 asked Shushilan to provide information on the next phase of piloting. ‘We are already late in undertaking initiatives to remain competitive on the export market and there is no logic for further delays by fulfilling the DoF’s requirement for additional phases of piloting,’ Amin Ullah said. People from the sector said that there were a total of 76 shrimp processing factories across the country and only 30 of them were in production. According to the Export promotion Bureau, export earnings from shrimps in the financial year 2020-21 declined by 1.15 per cent to $328.84 million from $332.65 in FY2019-20.
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