Bangladesh’s frozen fish exporters are facing a severe crisis as they are sitting on stock piles of export products due to a sharp fall in demand of the products on the global market amid the Russia-Ukraine war. Exporters said that both the prices of and the demand for frozen fish declined in the European Union, the major market of the item for Bangladesh, due to the war and more than 4,000 tonnes of shrimp and other fish worth $40 million remained unsold for the past few months. The Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association on Sunday in a letter to commerce minister Tipu Munshi demanded increasing cash incentive for the sector to 20 per cent from the existing 10 per cent so that exporters could survive amid the global economic slowdown.
The letter signed by Md Amin Ullah, president of the BFFEA, said that due to the lack of export demand and fall in prices of frozen fish on the global market, a significant portion of exportable shrimps were being sold on the local market at lower prices and the country was being deprived from export earnings.
According to the Export Promotion Bureau data, Bangladesh’s export earnings from frozen and live fish in July-November of the current financial year 2022-23 fell by 27.39 per cent to $208.27 million from $286.85 million in the same period of the previous financial year. The data showed that export earnings from shrimps in the first five months of FY23 decreased by 32.40 per cent to $156.46 million from $231.44 million in the same period of FY22.
Amin Ullah said that the government was providing 20 per cent cash incentive against the export of several agricultural products and if the incentive increased to 20 per cent for the frozen fish sector for the next two years, the exporters would be able to survive with exporting their products at decreased global prices. He also urged the commerce minister to issue a demi official letter to the fisheries ministry to allow commercial production of Vannamei shrimps in Bangladesh to ensure raw materials for the frozen fish export sector.
Former BFFEA president Kazi Belayet Hossain on Tuesday told New Age that Russia-Ukraine war deepened the crisis the sector was facing due to the Covid pandemic fallout. ‘Export of shrimp has witnessed a sharp fall in recent months as the EU, the major market for Bangladesh, is facing economic crisis due to the war,’ he said. Due to high inflation, the EU consumers decreased the consumption of shrimps as they considered it as a luxurious item, Belayet said. He said that the major raw materials for the frozen fish sector were shrimps and that the item was produced by the rural marginal people. The poor farmers, who produce shrimps, are suffering more due to the fall in prices of the item, Belayet said.
He, however, said that lack of available supply of raw materials with low prices was the main challenge for the country’s frozen fish sector and commercial cultivation of Vannamei variety of shrimps could remove the challenge. ‘We have successfully completed the pilot project of the Vannamei variety and it showed that that 8,000-10,000 kilograms of the Vannamei variety could be produced a hector, which is 20 times higher than the production rate of the local Black Tiger shrimp and freshwater prawn,’ Belayet said. He said that the government should allow commercial production of Vannamei in the country so that shrimp exporters could remain competitive on the global market.