No sign of recovery in shrimp exports

After recording a 21 percent dip in earnings in fiscal 2022-23, the downturn in frozen food exports have extended in the current fiscal year, according to market players.

This is because the demand for black tiger shrimp has not recovered in Europe, the main market for locally grown shrimp, they said.

Exports of frozen and live fish declined 25 percent year-on-year to $61 million in the July-August period of fiscal year 2023-24, shows data of the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB).

This was due to a slump in earnings from shrimp, which brought home 73 percent of the export receipts for the sector during the opening quarter.

"Our main market is Europe. Consumers there are cutting on foods like shrimp as their cost of living has increased. We are feeling the consequence of the Russia-Ukraine war," said Shyamal Das, managing director of MU Sea Foods, a frozen foods exporter.

Grown mostly in the southwest coastal zone, shrimp is a major export item for Bangladesh.

Export earnings from the sector have been suffering from volatility for the last decade, impacted by competition from the cheaper priced vannamei grown in other countries, including India.

After a consistent fall, exports rebounded in the two years until fiscal year 2021-22.

However, it fell the following year and the decline continued this year. Shipments in terms of quantity also dropped, according to data of the Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association.

Shyamal said prices have falling along with demand. The price of shrimp, which was $14 per kilogramme a year ago, has dropped to $11-11.5 per kilogramme.

"To be honest, I don't see any possibility of recovery. If there is any rebound it may come in the third quarter of this fiscal year," he said, adding that the order flow fell in the last three weeks.

"And at the current prices, we are incurring losses sometimes even after adding the government incentive," he added.

Exporters say the main harvesting season for brackish water shrimp, the main variety in Bangladesh, begins in May and they usually get good responses from buyers during this period.

This year though, unfavourable weather and low prices hit the export earnings from frozen and live fish.

Besides, heatwaves in recent months affected the production of shrimp.

But the domestic demand for shrimp is high amid a lack of production of the popular food, said FH Ansarey, president of the agribusiness division of ACI Ltd, which runs a shrimp processing plant.

"At the current prices in the domestic market, we are incurring losses," he said.

"There is so sign to be hopeful," Ansarey added.