May 28, 2009

Bangladeshi frozen seafood industry is likely to suffer a big blow as 50-70 percent of the country's southwestern Khulna region shrimp farms - the major growing area - were washed away due to Cyclone Aila on Monday (May 25), exporters said.

 

Bangladesh Frozen Food Exporters' Association (BFFEA) vice president Abdul Bakir estimated loss of nearly BDT10 billion (US$145.2 million).

 

Bakir said the southwestern Khulna region which is responsible for producing 80 percent of the country's export-oriented frozen foods, mainly marine water shrimp, homes nearly 86,000 shrimp farms.

 

According to BFFEA, farmers in the Khulna region, which comprises of several districts, cultivate marine shrimps at around 170,000 hectares of land and freshwater prawns at 50,000 hectares of land.

 

However, exporters said it would take a few more days to calculate the actual damage of the frozen seafood sector that has already been encountering a number of problems in wake of the ongoing global economic recession.

 

BFFEA former president Golam Mostafa said this is the time when the farmers are awaiting to start harvesting and most farms were full of shrimps as it is the peak season.

 

Mostafa said it will surely affect the sector which is already in trouble as freshwater prawns has been found contaminated with unsafe chemical nitrofuran, in which the BFFEA last week decided to suspend export of freshwater prawns to EU for six months.