Frozen food exporters facing fund crisis

The country's frozen food exporters are in financial constraints over purchasing shrimp due to non-availability of pending cash incentives from the government.
The industry insiders said the government is yet to release the cash incentives worth Tk 2.0 billion they are entitled to receive.
Speaking on the issue Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association (BFFEA) vice president M Khalilullah said: "The harvesting season of black tiger has started from March 15 and is still going on. Generally, we buy shrimp and stockpile it for export purposes."
"But we are facing liquidity crisis as the government has not yet released the cash incentives worth Tk 2.0 billion," he said.   
The exporters usually enjoy 10 per cent cash incentive when one pound of shrimp is priced at US$ 3.79 or less.
It is worth mentioning that the government withdrew cash incentive on export of white fishes for FY 2013-14.
He said the exporters faced disruption in transportation due to political turmoil for a couple of months last year which hampered the export growth.
Meanwhile, BFFEA sources said the exporters get only Tk 600 million to Tk 700 million cash incentives in a quarter whereas they are supposed to get Tk 1.00 billion to Tk 1.50 billion in a quarter.
The readymade garments sector gets the major portion of the cash incentives per quarter provided by the government and the rest goes to other sectors, they said.
BFFEA President Md Amin Ullah said: "We have sent letters to the monitoring cell of the Finance Division under the ministry of finance and Bangladesh Bank to release the pending cash incentives immediately as we are also facing trouble in adjusting our bank loan and its interest."
"So considering these issues the authorities concerned are expected to take necessary steps to release pending cash incentive, otherwise the frozen food export of the country will be hampered," he said.
Bangladesh exported frozen foods worth $ 458.30 million during July to February of this fiscal year (FY), 2013-14, compared to $ 368.90 million of the same period last fiscal, Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) data showed.