If successful, the initiative is expected to breathe life back into the ailing industry. One of our main challenges is the shortage of raw materials. We will get raw materials for processing in my factory if our pilot farming is successful, said Shyamal Das, managing director of MU Seafoods.
MU Seafoods partnered with Sushilan, a local non-government organisation, in 2019 to begin the experiment on vannamei farming.
The Department of Fisheries (DoF) gave the go-ahead to culture whiteleg shrimp in the southwestern division of Khulna, a major farming region for export-oriented shrimp, after years of concerns that foreign species may have a negative impact on their native counterparts such as black tiger shrimp.
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Export drops 5pc in January
Earnings from merchandise exports fell 4.99 per cent year-on-year to $3.43 billion in January because of slower recovery of garment shipment from the pandemic-induced business slowdown, official data showed yesterday.
January s receipts were 9.58 per cent lower than the monthly target of $3.80 billion, according to data from the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB).
Between July and January, the first seven months of the fiscal year, the shipment of garment, which typically contributes more than 80 per cent to the national export, declined 3.44 per cent year-on-year to $18.40 billion.
Of the earnings from the apparel export, $9.98 billion came from the knitwear shipment, which was up 3.84 per cent. The export of woven items declined 10.85 per cent to $8.41 billion.
And the pandemic-induced demand slump has further increased the woes of growers. Prices of prawn have fallen drastically this year from that of a year ago, said Chinmoy Das, a shrimp trader in Kachua upazila under Bagerhat, one of the main shrimp producing districts in the southwest.
Farmers could large prawns at Tk 1,300 per kilogramme (roughly eight prawns) last year. Now they have to sell prawns of the same grade at Tk 600 per kg.
Prices of smaller sized prawns also dropped, creating worries among many farmers of losses. Both farmers and small traders like us are on the verge of losses, Chinmoy said.
Bangladesh has a lot of potentiality to boost the export income through exporting quality shrimp, but the export income witnessed a negative growth for lack of adequate policy support. In the first five months (July to November) of the ongoing fiscal 2020-21, country gained $163.01 million while such income was $178.67 million during the corresponding period of the last fiscal 2019-20. Riding on the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) data, it may be said that the shrimp export declined by 8.76 percent. Actually, Shrimps of Bangladesh has gained an international reputation by higher demands. Unfortunately, the increase for export has not progressed in quantity as the shrimp farming faced a lot of complications, said Ashraf Hossain Masud, Senior Vice President, Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association (BFFEA). The cheap price of Vannamei shrimps that the competing country produces is one of the main causes for the country to suffer loss. Though there is a rise in the export