Home ›› 07 May 2023 ›› News
In order to stop the smuggling of post-larvae (PL) of freshwater shrimp, the Anti-smuggling Regional Task Force Committee in Khulna has recommended lifting of the existing ban on the import of shrimp PL.
Due to the decrease in production of PL in the country, many people are smuggling it from India. The smuggled PLs are entering the country without any kind of examination, increasing the risk to the environment and incurring revenue loss for the government.
Khulna Divisional Commissioner and also President of the Regional Task Force Committee on Anti-Smuggling Md Zillur Rahman Chowdhury recently made the recommendation to the Senior Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce Tapan Kanti Ghosh.
According to the recommendation of the committee, the Khulna divisional commissioner has requested to take necessary steps to include shrimp PL in the list the imported products in order to increase revenue in the country and remove obstacles to fish production.
The frozen shrimp industry is now in dire straits as locally produced post-larvae freshwater shrimp cannot meet a small portion of the total demand. The PL shortage has created a crisis in the whole shrimp sector, once the second largest export sector in the country.
Both freshwater and saltwater shrimps are widely cultivated in the south-western districts of Satkhira, Jashore, Khulna and Bagerhat.
Amidst such a situation, the task force at a meeting at Khulna Circuit House recently discussed the issues of PL import and thwarting its smuggling.
Approximately 70 crore larvae are required every year in Satkhira alone. Though 6.5 lakh larvae are being produced annually from two state-owned hatcheries in Satkhira, the quantity is negligible compared to the demand.
Due to this situation, every year from April to August, the shrimp PL is smuggled into Bangladesh from India, through various border areas. Fishermen collect PL and store them in enclosures.
According to Bangladesh Fisheries Department's Fish Hatchery Act-2010, no person can import live fish PL from abroad without the permission of the department. Besides, the National Board of Revenue’s list of importable products does not include shrimp PL. The Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) regularly seizes shrimp PL smuggled through the border.
According to the data of the Department of Fisheries, there are 1,056 fish hatcheries for PL production in the country which produce more than 6.5 lakh kg annually. While the potential for freshwater shrimp production is high, the production of larvae is low. Twenty-seven of the country’s freshwater lobster PL hatcheries, out of 38, are state-owned and the rest are private.
Till last year, there were only six private hatcheries. Even though the number of hatcheries has increased, the production has not.
Most of the private ones have stopped cultivation. Against an annual demand of 150 crore, the annual production of freshwater shrimp PL in the country is 2.37 crore and the governmental production is only 32 lakh. However, there are more opportunities for shrimp PL cultivation throughout the country. Most of the PL is smuggled as the local supply falls short.
In the state-owned hatcheries, the production of PL was started several years ago through a project under the Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute (BFRI). After the completion, BFRI retained very little production in those hatcheries. The country currently has no initiative towards developing the production of saltwater lobsters or the cultivation of PL.
Forty-four private hatcheries in the country annually produce around 721 crores of saltwater shrimp PL. The production is high but it is less than the actual demand of 750 crore. But these shrimp cannot be cultivated without salt water.
Hence this is only limited to coastal areas. It is still possible to increase the country's lobster production if the larvae production is planned and the breed is developed. Due to Covid, cutback in production and the decreased demand for shrimp in the international market, the export of frozen shrimp has consistently declined over the past decade.
As a result, the second-largest export product has now dropped to the seventh position. The market has been severely affected. In the last 10 years since FY 2012-13, the share of Bangladesh’s shrimp in the world market decreased by four per cent to two per cent. During this period, the export of shrimps consistently decreased by 39 per cent in terms of volume.
