The government has decided to waive interest on bank loans of the fish farms and shrimp exporters to help keep the sector alive amid risks of possible financial losses due to the ongoing shutdown across the country and elsewhere in the world.
On top of it, the fisheries sector would be provided with incentives to maintain production at the farms and save the farms from the possible devastation due to the spread of coronavirus.
"We have taken short, medium and long term measures to keep the country's fisheries sector alive," secretary of the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock (MoF&L) Rawnak Mahmud told the FE on Friday.
"We had discussion with the ministry of finance about the financial assistance and incentive package."
He informed that minister S M Rezaul Karim has also requested the stakeholders as well as the government departments concerned to help the fishermen gear up their fish production, its supply and marketing.
He said the ministry also proposed the government to provide financial support to the fish farmers so that they could buy fish feeds and other inputs to continue production.
"We also recommended to the government for giving financial supports to the labourers working in the sector," he added.
The secretary said the ministry has directed the fisheries department to coordinate with the deputy commissioners and law enforcing agencies, including police, to free the fish supply chain from any disruption.
He said the ministry has installed a hotline (02-9122557) at its control room to get to know the problems instantly being faced by the fish farmers.
Bangladesh is one of the world's leading fish producing countries. The sector registered an annual average growth of 5.26 per cent over the last 10 years. The aquaculture contributes 56.24 per cent of the total fish production in the country.
Bangladesh has already emerged as a self-sufficient country in fish production with per capita fish consumption of 62.58 g/day against a set target of 60 g/day.
The country exported 68,935 tonnes of fish and fisheries items worth US$ 514 million during the fiscal year 2017-18, according to the Department of Fisheries.
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