January 24, 2008

 

Bangladesh shrimp industry hit hard by Cyclone Sidr
 

 

Nearly 400,000 shrimp farmers face an uncertain future two months after Cyclone Sidr struck Bangladesh's southwestern coastal belt.

 

About 6,000 shrimp farms and hatcheries were washed away in the four southern districts of Satkhira, Khulna, Bagerhat and Patuakhali. Over 90 percent of some 5,000 shrimp enclosures were destroyed by the cyclone in Morrelganj, Sharankhola and Mongla sub-districts of Bagerhat District.

 

Bangladesh's shrimp exports are the country's second largest source of income, earning US$515 million from exports during the last fiscal year (July 2006-June 2007).

 

Bangladesh's government was hoping to earn over US$1.5 billion from shrimp exports annually by 2010 and it had fixed an export target of US$600 million in the frozen food sector for the fiscal year 2007-08.

 

Farms in the affected region are well known for their Black Tiger shrimps that grow in salt water and are reared on 130,000 hectares of land, while freshwater shrimps are reared on another 40,000 hectares of land.

 

President of the Frozen Food Exporters Association (BFFEA) of Bangladesh, Kazi Belayet Hossain said that they have suffered an estimated loss of about US$36 million,

 

Maqsudur Rahman, vice-president of BFFEA, said almost all the shrimp enclosures, hatcheries and processing plants in Bagerhat, Satkhira and Khulna districts, where 70 percent of shrimps were produced, were severely damaged by the cyclone which struck the country on November 15, 2007.

 

Fresh water shrimp farms in Barguna, Pirojpur, Madaripur and Gopalganj districts incurred 30 percent of the losses, Rahman said.

 

Directorate of Fisheries (DoF)'s director-general, Mokammel Hossain said the loss may be around US$3.5 million according to their initial estimation; a figure far less than what shrimp producers had claimed.

 

The EU which is a major client of Bangladeshi shrimps, has implied it is ready to offer assistance to help the shrimp farmers to recover their losses.

 

Ambassador and European Commission (EC) delegation head in Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, Stefan Frowein told the media they will certainly look into how they could help and a decision would be made once the damaged is assessed.

 

Frowein said the EU discussed possible assistance for the shrimp farmers at last month's Bangladesh-EC sub-group meeting on trade development, capacity building and economic cooperation held at the Ministry of Commerce in Dhaka.