Bangladesh’s black tiger shrimp farmers have refuted the Indian government’s claims of an outbreak of acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease (AHPND) — more commonly known as early mortality syndrome (EMS) — in their country. When asked whether Bangladesh has been affected by AHPND/EMS, industry players told Undercurrent News they were not aware of any such outbreak. India’s fisheries department had sent a letter (dated Feb. 27) to a number of its shrimp-producing states, warning them about reports of AHPND just over the border, in Bangladesh. However, Moin Uddin Ahmed — who works as a team leader at the Sustainable and Inclusive Shrimp Business Promotion project by international network organization Solidaridad — assured that there has been no outbreak. “I don’t know where they (India) got this information from,” he told Undercurrent. He suggested India’s move may have been “propaganda”, as a lot of buyers are shifting to Bangladesh for black tiger. Ahmed added that he has worked with both the countries in this sector and thus has an understanding of the scenarios of both Bangladesh and India. “The risk of disease outbreak is lower in Bangladesh when compared to India,” he said. Two black tiger suppliers from Bangladesh also refuted the Indian claims. The letter claimed that “reports have been received” about the occurrence of AHPND in Satkhira, Khulna, and Bagerhat in Bangladesh. It also said that Satkhira shares border with India’s West Bengal, and the latter is ‘so far free from this disease’. India aims to reach a production level of 1 million metric tons of shrimp by the year 2020. The country has seen stable growth throughout the past decade. However, whether the target is realistic or not has been questioned by many industry insiders, and not everyone agrees that it is achievable. Most of India’s shrimp production now consists of vannamei. Vannamei is more popular with farmers as it is a high-yield, lower-priced shrimp when compared to black tiger. Although shrimp-producing nations like India now tend to focus more on vannamei, Bangladesh specializes in black tiger production. The country is a major producer and exporter of this kind of shrimp, with European countries such as Germany, the Netherlands, and France being some of the biggest buyers. Bangladesh is currently sticking to black tiger because vannamei production requires an intensive farming method, while the country is still mostly using an extensive approach, and also because the risk of disease outbreak is believed to be lower in black tiger than in vannamei. According to Bangladeshi government figures, 68,217 metric tons of black tiger were produced in 2015-2016.