Govt going to grab piece of global Pangas market
Monday, 11 January 2010
Monira Munni
The government is going to take initiatives to grab a large slice of the billion-dollar global Pangas market as local farms are raising the fish at a cost much cheaper than that of their Vietnamese counterparts, officials said Saturday.
"There is no integrated plan from the authorities to export the fish which can inject a new momentum in the Pangas farming and create hundreds of thousands of new jobs," they added.
Fisheries and Livestock Ministry will hold a meeting today to find out the obstacles to exporting Pangas and the setbacks of farming it.
"This is an initial meeting which will highlight the barriers of Pangas and Telapia export including the farming problems," Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Fisheries Muhammed Samsul Kibria told the FE.
The ministry will take necessary initiatives to explore export market for the fast booming farming sector, in contrast to Vietnam which has moved aggressively and now enjoys a complete monopoly, he said. Twelve local MPs (members of Parliament), Bangladesh Bank governor, secretaries from finance, industry, land and commerce ministries and leaders of exporters and farmers are expected to attend to the meeting, Kibria added.
Dr MA Mazid, national consultant of UN Industries Development Organisation (UNIDO), said cultivation of Pangas has been a 'big success story' of Bangladesh's agro sector in the past one decade.
"It can overtake shrimp as the leading frozen food export item, as research has shown Bangladeshi ponds and rivers are the most suitable place to raise Pangas," he said.
To reach that goal, he said, some 4,000 Pangas farms in the country should first ensure quality of fish fry, proper dietary feeding and environment-friendly cultivation - features seen as crucial for entry into the export market.
Vietnam has a 98 per cent stake in global Pangas export, shipping fillet and fish worth over billion dollars in Europe and America last year at a rate the Bangladeshi farmers said only they can match in the international market.
With shrimp becoming a luxury food in the recession-hit West, millions of fish lovers have now switched their liking to Pangas, triggering a 20-30 per cent growth in consumption in the European markets alone over the past few months. On an average farmers in the main Pangas producing areas now spend Tk 40 to raise one kilogram of the fish, which is lower than the production cost in Vietnam. "Yet, we have failed to cash in on our price advantages in the European market despite high demand. We lack hygiene and processing standards that are prerequisite for export," experts said.
Farmers also admit that the Pangas cultivation suffers from a number of setbacks including non-availability of balanced food, excess land taxes and ban on import of some key raw materials.
The government is going to take initiatives to grab a large slice of the billion-dollar global Pangas market as local farms are raising the fish at a cost much cheaper than that of their Vietnamese counterparts, officials said Saturday.
"There is no integrated plan from the authorities to export the fish which can inject a new momentum in the Pangas farming and create hundreds of thousands of new jobs," they added.
Fisheries and Livestock Ministry will hold a meeting today to find out the obstacles to exporting Pangas and the setbacks of farming it.
"This is an initial meeting which will highlight the barriers of Pangas and Telapia export including the farming problems," Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Fisheries Muhammed Samsul Kibria told the FE.
The ministry will take necessary initiatives to explore export market for the fast booming farming sector, in contrast to Vietnam which has moved aggressively and now enjoys a complete monopoly, he said. Twelve local MPs (members of Parliament), Bangladesh Bank governor, secretaries from finance, industry, land and commerce ministries and leaders of exporters and farmers are expected to attend to the meeting, Kibria added.
Dr MA Mazid, national consultant of UN Industries Development Organisation (UNIDO), said cultivation of Pangas has been a 'big success story' of Bangladesh's agro sector in the past one decade.
"It can overtake shrimp as the leading frozen food export item, as research has shown Bangladeshi ponds and rivers are the most suitable place to raise Pangas," he said.
To reach that goal, he said, some 4,000 Pangas farms in the country should first ensure quality of fish fry, proper dietary feeding and environment-friendly cultivation - features seen as crucial for entry into the export market.
Vietnam has a 98 per cent stake in global Pangas export, shipping fillet and fish worth over billion dollars in Europe and America last year at a rate the Bangladeshi farmers said only they can match in the international market.
With shrimp becoming a luxury food in the recession-hit West, millions of fish lovers have now switched their liking to Pangas, triggering a 20-30 per cent growth in consumption in the European markets alone over the past few months. On an average farmers in the main Pangas producing areas now spend Tk 40 to raise one kilogram of the fish, which is lower than the production cost in Vietnam. "Yet, we have failed to cash in on our price advantages in the European market despite high demand. We lack hygiene and processing standards that are prerequisite for export," experts said.
Farmers also admit that the Pangas cultivation suffers from a number of setbacks including non-availability of balanced food, excess land taxes and ban on import of some key raw materials.