April 30, 2008

Bangladesh shrimp farms infected by smuggled Indian fry
 

Shrimp farms in Bangladesh have been infected by a virus brought in by smuggled Indian fry, causing losses to Bangladeshi shrimp producers.

A large number of low quality and virus-infected Indian fry are smuggled into Bangladesh on a daily basis through various border points. Bangladesh prohibits the movement of fry from India.

The fry are then sold to owners of Bagda nurseries and Galda hatcheries of the border areas, which in turn sold them as locally produced fry to shrimp producers in various districts.

The shrimps are then infected by virus after the smuggled fry were released in the enclosures.

Local shrimp fry costs BDT 2,000-2,500 per 1,000 while Indian fry costs only BDT 1,200 per 1,000, according to shrimp fry smugglers of Kaliganj. The figure means that for every 1,000 smuggled fry they sell, they could earn a profit of BDT 1,000.

Some shrimp producers have failed to earn profits in the last few years due to the virus attack and they are worried whether they would be able to recover the production costs this year.

Hasanuzzaman Chowdhury, an officer from the District Fisheries Department said shrimp producers chooses low-priced Indian fry because locally produced fry are expensive.

The Fisheries Directorate has warned the Bagda nurseries and Galda hatcheries not to sell the infected Indian fry, and has requested the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) to strengthen border surveillance to curb smuggling, said Chowdhury.

He added that the BDR has recently seized smuggled fry worth BDT 100,000 from the border areas.

BDT 1 = US$0.014 (April 30, 2008)