American diners losing lure of B\\\'desh shrimp

Bangladesh's frozen shrimp has been losing its market share in the US over the last decade as it fails to compete with low-cost and small-sized foreign vannamei varieties, industry people said.
Frozen shrimp exports to the USA fell drastically in the last couples of years and exporters blamed the non-availability of vannamei variety of prawn for the decline.
Presently, according to exporters, only 8.0 per cent of the total frozen fish exports are now destined to the US market, once the single-largest market for exporters. This compares with about 30 per cent in five years back.
Sector people, however, predicted a further fall in the country's market share in the US in the months ahead.
The country fetched only $35.26 million in the last fiscal year of 2014-15 by exporting shrimp, which was $81.55 million in FY 2010-11, according to the data available with the state-owned Export Promotion Bureau (EPB).
The sector made shipment of frozen shrimp worth $76 million in 2009-10 fiscal, $110 million in 2008-09, $140 million in 2007-08, and $170 million in 2006-07 fiscal year to the US market.
"Shrimp exports to the US have been declining each year since 2008-09 as we can't compete with the small-sized and low-priced vannamei," President of Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association (BFFEA) SM Amzad Hossain told the FE.
Demand for vannamei is growing in the US, especially in the aftermath of the 2007-08 global recession, he added.
US consumers, hit by the economic downturn, changed their tastes from big-sized black tiger to the white shrimp -- vannamei, which is small in size, but available at reasonable price, he said.
He feared that this year the earning might decline further.
Bangladesh's key rivals, such as Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and India are gradually grabbing the world market by supplying vannamei, which is not yet produced in Bangladesh for what he called government's apathy.
"Export to America declined to 8-10 per cent during the last couples of years, which was about 30 per cent in six to seven years ago," an official of Lockpur Group that exports to the US said.
EPB officials said that the frozen fish exporters informed the Bureau that they fail to get better price in the global market as they could not include vannamei in their export basket.
Stakeholders said their rivals like India, Thailand, China, Indonesia and Vietnam have been producing vannamei shrimp over the last several years, putting local black tiger variety exporters in tight corner.
The competing countries are now successfully controlling the viral disease of EMS (early mortality syndrome) of the white shrimp and working to give same size and colour of black tiger to the vannamei for getting good price, they added.
An exporter said price of per pound of vannamei is cheaper than that of black tiger by $2.0 to $2.50, which encourages western consumers to prefer vannamei variety.
"So, even if we offer per pound of black tiger shrimp at $ 6.0, no buyer responds to us," he said, adding that vannamei is sold at $4.0 to $ 4.5 per pound.
"We have no option to survive without farming vannamei shrimp. It is capturing the whole shrimp market," he added.
Industry people said there has been a tremendous demand for the new variety of shrimp in Russia, Australia, Canada, Spain and New Zealand as well as in Asia as the price of this small sized shrimp is affordable.
They said the new variety is not as tasteful as the black tiger shrimp, but the consumers prefer it due to lower price.
They also said production rate of vannamei is much higher than that of black tiger shrimp and the production cost is also lower.
Some 7,000 to 10,000 kg of vannamei is produced on per hectre of land, compared with just 300 kg for black tiger, they noted.   
Fish, especially shrimp farming, is a key employer in the country's poverty-stricken southwestern coastal region. An estimated 1.0 million people are employed in the country's 130 shrimp processing plants and tens of thousands of farms.
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