Non-traditional fish export needs govt patronization

FE Team | Published: July 09, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

FE Report
The government has long remained apathetic to taking initiatives in exporting non-traditional fishery items, like eels and crabs, despite huge demand in the international markets for these products.
Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) Director (Commodity) Golam Mohiuddin said, it has no plan to take any move encouraging the exporters in promoting such non-traditional sea-foods.
"I know such items have huge markets in the international markets, but we are exporting very small quantity of such items," Mohiuddin said.
EPB hardly conducted any study on eel fish export, he said.
Market operators said, the buyers, especially from the US, are searching for alternative sources including Bangladesh, after the recent ban on the Chinese eel fish.
China now dominates the world's sea-food market, and supplies 80 per cent of the eel fish, imported by the US.
But the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said, the Chinese companies will be restricted from selling certain types of seafood in the US, as the regulators are regularly finding the Chinese imports contaminated with carcinogens and excessive antibiotic residues.
Meanwhile, the Bangladeshi eel and crab suppliers and exporters said, presently there is no planned eel-cultivation in the country, and they collect these products from different natural sources like ponds, lakes and wetlands.
They also said, these non-traditional foods can grab the world market, if they are systematically cultivated under the government assistance.
"We are buying eel from the local suppliers at a cost of Tk 60 per kg, whereas its price in the international market is at least 10 times higher than that," said one local exporter.
Another leading eel exporter said, the product has huge potential, and the local exporters are exporting it without any government initiative for promoting it in the world market.
The local exporters are now exporting 1.0 tonne of these items per day on an average, he added.