Bangladeshi exporters have failed to benefit from uptrend in prices of black tiger variety shrimp on the international market due to supply shortage.
Exporters said that the current price of black tiger has risen significantly in the last five years on the global market.
Each pound frozen shrimp is now selling at more than US$ 7.0, which was about US$ 4.50 five years ago, they said.
But Bangladesh can't seize the opportunities due to a lack of supply of the shrimp on the local market.
The country exports only 2.0 per cent of the international demand for frozen shrimp, according to the Bangladesh Shrimp and Fish Foundation (BSFF).
If the supply increases, Bangladesh can raise the share to 7.0 per cent of the global shrimp market easily, sector-insiders said.
They sought policy support from the government in this regard.
Prices of black tiger remained high in the last one year as the production of vannamei variety; the leading item has declined in Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand and India. These countries dominate the world's shrimp market with such species.
Goutam Kundu, managing director of Southern Food Ltd, said his company was ringing up the "best price" of the items in recent times.
The prices of shrimp declined drastically after the global recession,. Exporters had experienced substantial losses at that time.
"After a long period, the price has increased. This could have been a great chance for us if we had smooth supply of raw materials," he noted.
Of the total exportable shrimp from Bangladesh, more than 80 per cent is black tiger or bagda variety.
When contacted, senior vice president of the Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association (BFFEA) Kazi Belayet Hossain said the export volume of frozen shrimp had not increased in the last one decade.
The annual export volume remained stagnant at 50,000-60,000 tonnes and of the total, nearly some 40,000 tonnes are shrimp, he noted.
"We can't utilise our capacity of processing plants due to lower supply of shrimp," said Mr Hossain. The current capacity of all such plants is 350,000 tonnes a year.
He also said for several years, Bangladesh could not compete with the countries that export vannamei, because the production cost of black tiger, where the country has strengths, is higher than the low-cost variety.
"If we had available supply of black tiger, we could have made good profits as vannamei production has fallen in different countries," he added.
Rafiqul Islam, executive director of BSFF, said the government needs to give proper support to the farmers to produce shrimp.
He also put emphasis on introducing semi-intensive shrimp culture system to boost output.
"Production will not increase in traditional method," he said adding that the farmers should be given low-cost fund so that they are encouraged to switch over to the modern method.
Calling for a government policy, he said although banks provide loan to the exporters, producers do not get any financing..
Cultivatable lands also should be improved by the authority, he added.
Bangladeshi is the 7th among the top 10 shrimp exporting countries in the world.
More than 100 companies are operating under the BFFEA, of which some 76 are entitled to export to the EU. The bulk of Bangladesh's frozen shrimp is destined to the European Union and the USA.
Export income from the sector was US$ 526.45 million in the fiscal year (FY) 2016-17, of which $ 446.4 million came from frozen shrimp.
In the July-December period of FY 2017-18, export earnings from shrimp were US$ 271.01 million whereas it was $ 265.93 million in the corresponding period of fiscal, the Export Promotion Bureau data shows. The growth was 5.48 per cent in the period.
© 2024 - All Rights with The Financial Express
