Backward infrastructure, little access to finance and non-adoption of scientific methods have deprived the country of more than Tk 10 billion it could earn from shrimp export, experts and industry insiders said.
They urged the government to improve infrastructure including rebuilding of embankments in the southern coastal areas, provide easy-term loans to the shrimp farmers with adequate scientific inputs for significantly increasing the country's shrimp (especially Bagda) export.
The government introduced shrimp cultivation through scientific methods at Rampur under Chokoria upazila in Cox's Bazar on experimental basis recently.
There are 7,000 acres of land in the area that are suitable for scientific shrimp farming.
"We want the government to develop infrastructure including rebuilding of embankments in the coastal areas of the country and provide access to loan that would help increase shrimp production leading to earning of Tk 10 billion from export," Chairman of the Bangladesh Shrimp and Fish Foundation (BSFF) Syed Mahmudul Huq told the FE.
He said the country annually exports shrimp worth around Tk 40 billion (Tk 400 crore).
Frozen shrimp and fishes are the second largest export-earning sources. The country had earned only Tk 23 million from shrimp export in 1972. During the fiscal year (FY) 2013-14, export earnings from shrimp and other varieties of fishes stood at around Tk 50 billion. Shrimp constituted 95 per cent of the export.
"If the country goes for scientific shrimp cultivation, then its export could fetch US $ 5 billion annually," Mr Huq said.
The country has a total of 0.7 million (seven lakh) acres that cultivate around 1,35,000 tonnes of shrimp annually.
The average production per acre is around 140-kg in the country.
India, Vietnam, Thailand and China, however, produce 3,000 kg shrimps in one acre of land.
He said despite huge potential, Bangladesh is lagging behind in producing shrimp as it still follows traditional methods.
There are 144 shrimp processing factories in the country. Of them, only 35 to 40 factories are now in operation.
"Scientific methods could be the only way-out for developing the country's shrimp sector," Mr Huq opined.
He pleaded for providing easy-term loans to the shrimp farmers who got plots at Rampur under Chokoria upazila in Cox's Bazar for scientific cultivation from equity and entrepreneurship fund (EEF) of the Bangladesh Bank.
The ministry of fisheries and livestock (MoFL) has taken initiatives for stepping up shrimp cultivation scientifically at Rampur, an additional secretary of the ministry told the FE.
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