Frozen food exports set to top $600m this year

Sonia H Moni | May 28, 2014 00:00:00

Bangladesh's frozen food shipment is set to exceed US$600 million this financial year on the back of price hike in the world market earlier this year, exporters say.

Last month, the price of 31-40 count shrimp was US$ 7.0 per pound and the price of 16-20 count was US$ 9.50 per pound, although the price came down to $ 5.0 and $ 8.0 respectively.

The country exported frozen food worth $534.98 million during July to April the 2014 fiscal against the target of $ 578.77 million, according to the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) data. The country exported a record $611.36 million frozen food in fiscal year 2010-11.

"Global price rise earlier of the year has helped us earn more," Kazi Bellayet Hossain, a senior vice president of Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association (BFFEA), told the FE.

"This price rose following the bacterial infection known as 'Early Mortality Syndrome' that struck vennimie shrimp farms in China, Vietnam, Thailand and Vietnam. This disease kills the baby shrimp," he said.

The scarcity of vennamie helped push up the price as buyers were ready to buy shrimp at higher price, he added.

"We earned around US$ 40 million by exporting frozen food in April. We are expecting to earn around US$ 100 million in May-June period," he said.

That means exports this fiscal are on track to exceed $600 million.

BFFEA President Md Amin Ullah said: "I think our exports are set to reach a new high this fiscal as we've got 20 to 25 per cent higher price early this year. This price was not so high in previous couple of years."

"Despite continuous political turmoil in the last half of 2013, the export growth of this sector is satisfactory," he said.

"We have to wait and watch and observe the market price and it will create an impact on the frozen food export of upcoming fiscal," he said.

Bangladesh exports around 50,000 tonnes of shrimp a year to the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, the United States, Germany, France, Spain, Russia, India, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, and China, BFFEA sources said.