50pc fall in Oct orders from EU market for BD shrimp

Exporters of frozen foods received 50 per cent less orders from the European market in October although it is annual high time of this trade ahead of the Christmas Day fiesta.
Businessmen fixed two problems: vast vennanie production and strong dollar that added up to the cost borne by buyers.  
"Generally, we get a big number of orders in October as the shipments ahead of Christmas leave Chittagong port by November 15," Lockpur Group of Industries deputy managing director Khan Habibur Rahman told the FE Sunday.
But this year, he said, the exporters got 50 per cent less order than usual as low-cost vennamie shrimp flooded the international market.
This year, the output of vennamie doubled from that of the previous year.
 "The price of black tiger is one-dollar costlier per pound than vennamie," he said.
The European market is the biggest destination for Bangladeshi frozen foods as around 65 to 70 per cent of the country's total exports go there.
Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association (BFFEA) senior vice-president Kazi Bellayet Hossain said: "We are getting poor orders from European buyers as they have been buying the dollar at a high rate for last one and a half months, which increased the expenditure."
He said they were supposed to get big export orders ahead of Christmas but were disappointed.
 "At this moment the price fell around 60 cent to one dollar per pound as the demand for black tiger is so poor."
The price of 16-20 count shrimp, the most popular variety, is now $8.20 per pound--down from 8.80 a month back.
He said the buyers are getting vennamie at lower cost than black tiger. The low cost is catching their attention most.
The trade-body leader feared that this fiscal year they might not be able to reach the target of frozen foods export.
Bangladesh exported frozen foods worth $190.80 million in July-September of this fiscal year (FY 2014-15), compared with $191.28 million in the same period last fiscal, the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) data showed.
The government has set a target of exporting $731.08 million worth of frozen foods this fiscal.

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