Frozen food exporters are getting poor orders and low price from the European market for more than last two weeks as a strong dollar added cost to the buyers, an industry leader said.
The US dollar hit a new high against major currencies, including Euro last month. Around 65 to 70 per cent of the country's total export go to the European market, making it Bangladesh's biggest destination of frozen food.
"We're facing this situation as the Europeans are buying dollar at a high rate, which increased the expenditure of our buyers," a senior vice president of Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association Kazi Bellayet Hossain told the FE.
"It's disappointing. We are supposed to get big export orders ahead of Christmas but the demand has fallen unexpectedly," he added.
Lockpur Group of Industries deputy managing director Khan Habibur Rahman told the FE that the prices of shrimp in the global market fell by 10 to 15 cent per pound, and demand of black tiger in the European market also slowed.
He said the price of 16-20 count shrimp is now $ 8.50 to $ 8.80 per pound, compared with $ 8.60 to $ 8.88 15 days back.
Price of 13-15 count is now $ 10-$ 10.10 that was $ 10-$ 10.20 per pound. The 21-25 count is now $ 7-$ 7.20 which was $ 7.60 -7.80 per pound.
The BFFEA senior vice President expressed the hope that the scenario will be changed when the rate of pound goes up, which will in turn help pick up orders.
Bangladesh exported frozen foods worth $ 122.20 million in July-August of this fiscal year (FY 2014-15), compared with $ 117.96 million in the same period last fiscal, 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.
The exporters exported frozen food worth $ 638.19 million in FY 2013-14 against the target of $ 578.77 million, setting a new record. This happened due to price hike for shrimp in global market following scarcity of vennamie shrimp.
Earlier, the country exported frozen food worth $ 611.36 million in fiscal year 2010-11 which is the second highest ever export earning from this sector.
Last year, the price of 31-40 count shrimp was US$ 7.0 and the price of 16-20 count shrimp was US$ 9.50 per pound due to supply shortage of vennamie in the global market.
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