Only three consignments of frozen food went to the Russian market since October when ruble has devalued against dollar, negatively impacting on Bangladesh exports, officials said.
In November, only two consignments, valued at around US$ 310,000, found their way into the Russian market, Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association executive director Abul Bashar told the Financial Express Sunday.
"There was no export for four months from December 2014 to March 2015. And this month a single shipment went to Russia," Mr Bashar said.
He said Russia accounts from around ten to twelve per cent of the country's frozen food exports. The annual export to Russia is worth Tk 3.0 billion to Tk 3.5 billion.
At present, Bagerhat Sea Food Ltd, Fresh Foods Ltd, Apex Food Ltd, ARK Sea Food Ltd, Gemini Sea Foods Ltd and Rupsha Sea Foods-are exporting frozen foods to Russia.
The exporters said that they are facing this situation as Russians are buying dollar at a high rate, which increased the expenditure. For this reason the buyers are not buying frozen fish from.
Lockpur Group of Industries Deputy Managing Director Khan Habibur Rahman said they are facing this trouble as Russians are buying dollar at a high rate, which increased the expenditure.
"We did not get any single order for our two companies--Sea Food Ltd and Rupsha Sea Foods. We are sending offer letters to our buyers, but they are not replying," Mr Rahman said.
He also said they are interested in low cost vennanie produced in India, Vietnam and Thailand. The buyers want black tigers at the price of vennanie, which is not possible. The price of a pound of black tiger is one to one and a half dollar than vennamie.
Frozen foods exporters said the Russian authority is giving approval to new companies of Bangladesh to export frozen foods to Russia, but due devaluation of ruble against dollar, they cannot seize the opportunity.
Bangladesh exported frozen foods worth US$ 462.53 million in July to March of this fiscal year (FY), 2014-15, compared to $ 495.84 million of the same period last fiscal, the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) data showed.
The government has set a target of exporting frozen foods worth $ 731.08 million this fiscal.
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