Shrimp exporters have incurred around Tk 2.80 billion in losses since the BNP-led opposition parties enforced transport blockade in early January, an industry leader said.
"Transportation problem has almost broken supply chain of raw materials. We're counting a loss of Tk 100 million per day," Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association (BFFEA) president Md Amin Ullah told the FE.
He said the loss is beyond the stockpiled 11,000 tonnes of shrimp including black tiger and fresh water prawn worth Tk 15 billion in several fish processing plants across the country.
Lockpur Group of Industries Deputy Managing Director Khan Habibur Rahman said supply shortage of raw materials is causing problem in processing frozen food while transport scarcity is compounding the problem of getting the products to sea ports.
He said the production capacity declined by around 60 per cent due to supply shortage of raw materials in the fish processing plants.
"The workers have to work in holidays to recover the production limit for exports. We can't send our frozen food items for the indefinite blockade and we're struggling to meet the shipment deadline and we are facing order cancellation," Mr Rahman said.
"The bulk of frozen food items are exported via the Chittagong port. We had to pay Tk 20,000 before the blockade to rent a truck from Khulna to Chittagong seaport but now we're forced to pay Tk 45,000 to Tk 50,000," he said.
BFFEA Senior Vice President Kazi Bellayet Hossain said the growth of export is not satisfactory as the exporters did not get export orders since October last year.
"We are facing this situation as the Europeans and Russians are buying dollar at a higher rate, which increased the cost of our buyers. On the other hand, the continuous nationwide blockade and hartals is hampering the business of this sector badly."
He expressed the apprehension that frozen food exporters might not be able to reach the export target in this fiscal year.
Bangladesh exported frozen food worth $ 355.03 million from July to December of 2015 fiscal, compared with $ 377.42 million in the same period last year, the state-run Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) data showed.
The government has set a target of exporting $ 731.08 million worth of frozen food this fiscal.
— ironlady_007@yahoo.com
