Shrimp exporters to take pleasure from edge as vannamei farming gets nod
The federal government is finally easing its grip on the shrimp industry as local farmers can now cultivate vannamei shrimp within the country following years of dithering by the concerned authorities to grant permission.
Earlier this week, the Department of Fisheries (DoF) greenlit another pilot project to farm the exotic species at the south-eastern coastal district of Cox's Bazar.
The Chattogram-based Agribusiness Enterprise Development and Services was awarded permission to cultivate the shrimp within an isolated location at Khuruskul of Cox's Bazar under the supervision of the DoF and Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute (BFRI).
This past year, the fisheries office allowed Shushilan, a nongovernmental organisation, and MU Seafood to pilot the first culture of whiteleg shrimp in the southwestern division of Khulna, a significant farming region for export-oriented shrimp.
However, both companies have yet to initiate their trial run of farming Vannamei shrimp, in Paikgachha of Khulna.
The move will come in the facial skin of increased demand from shrimp processors and exporters, whose earnings from locally produced black tiger shrimp and freshwater prawn have fallen constantly since fiscal 2014-15 due to competition from the cheaper vannamei shrimp farmed mainly in China, Southeast Asia, India plus some Latin American regions.
Exporters fetched $333 million within the last fiscal from shrimp exports, down 40 per cent from $550 million in fiscal 2013-14, data from the Export Promotion Bureau showed.
The downturn in export earnings from shrimp- farmed on 2.72 lakh hectares by more than eight lakh farmers for the EU and US markets-continued this fiscal year too.
Shrimp exports declined 3 % year-on-year to almost $97 million between July and September of the ongoing fiscal.
The fisheries office was unwilling to permit an exotic species to be farmed here because they feared the alien species may have a negative effect on native species such as for example black tiger shrimp, according to industry insiders.
Azizul Haque, deputy director of aquaculture at the DoF, said his organisation has allowed the farming of vannamei shrimp on a trial basis to see if there are significant results as this species is also farmed in India.
"The piloting must be done by importing specific pathogen free post larvae (PL)," he added.
The DoF also attached the problem that the pilot should be initiated only following the PLs are quarantined and tested at labs beneath the DoF and BFRI.
Whiteleg shrimp is native to the Eastern Pacific coast ranging from Sonora, Mexico in the North, through to Central and SOUTH USA, going as far as Tumbes in Peru.
Vannamei cultivation increased steadily from 8,000 tonnes in 1980 to almost 50 lakh tonnes in 2018, according to data from the meals and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
The full total haul in 2018 was practically double of the 24 lakh tonnes of whiteleg shrimp stated in 2009, the FAO's 2018 yearbook of Fishery and Aquaculture Statistics showed.
Whiteleg shrimp accounted for a lot more than 80 % of the full total shrimp production for that year as well.
The DoF finally allowed the vannamei shrimp pilot based on advice from the national technical committee, Haque said.
Your choice followed a directive from the fisheries and livestock ministry to allow vannamei shrimp farming in the Khulna and Cox's Bazar regions.
Earlier, the DoF sent an 11-point recommendation to the fisheries ministry based on a workshop in September 2018, about the exploration and feasibility of farming the exotic species.
The DoF decided to grant permission to Agribusiness Enterprise to farm whiteleg shrimp on a trial basis for one year at a gathering in mid-September this season.
However, this tenure could be extended predicated on results of the first year of cultivation, in line with the meeting.
Contacted, Nizamuddin Mahmood Selim, managing partner of Agribusiness Development and Services, said he was yet to get the letter from the DoF regarding their permission to pilot vannamei farming.
"We will decide after going right through the letter and conditions and conditions linked to trial farming the shrimp species," he added.
Mostafa Nuruzzaman, leader of Shushilan, said they cannot start cultivation yet as a result of early rainfall.
Rivers and ponds became fresher than what they must maintain order to grow vannamei shrimp, he said, adding that coronavirus outbreak caused further delays.
"We begins working from November to place fry in ponds next February, he said.
Kazi Belayet Hossain, president of the Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association, welcomed the DoF's decision.
He said vannamei shrimp take into account 77 % of the global shrimp trade while black tiger shrimp makes up about 12 per cent. Meanwhile, Bangladesh's share in global black tiger shrimp market is just about 2 per cent.
"We've been demanding the federal government for permission to sow vannamei since 1997. It really is positive they have allowed piloting though. If we are successful in the trail run, there will be no barrier to cultivation and production and exports will increase," he said.
