FE Report

Bangladeshi shrimp exporters should look to create their own 'niche market' at the global level by consolidating the market for her unique and highly sought-after organic shrimp, a group of top international shrimp experts said recently.

At the same time, they have emphasised the need for proper branding of the country in the international media as home to high quality shrimp if Bangladesh wants to emerge stronger from the recent dip in the fisheries export.

"Think niche, think organic, think big if you want a greater share of the world market for shrimp", Robins McIntosh who is the senior vice president of CP International, the world's largest supplier of frozen shrimp and shrimp feeds, said in the city.

He was the part of a group of leading shrimp experts who visited the country recently as the local shrimp sector, the country's second largest export earning segment, was going through its toughest times in decades with the imposition of a voluntary ban on export amid frequent rapid alerts due to food safety issues from its biggest importer EU.

During their visit, the experts attended a number of seminars and workshops and met with the country's top shrimp exporters and hatchery owners to exchange their views on the prospects and challenges of future world market.

"Despite the huge demand for white shrimps worldwide, it would not be wise for the local hatchery owners or shrimp farmers to switch to that specific genre," Robins said. "This is because Thailand which leads the world in shrimp production has already monopolised that segment".

"Instead, Bangladesh should focus on its strength areas and concentrate on capturing more of the market for its highly acclaimed 'black tiger' organic shrimp," he added.

Since the imposition of the ban, a number of issues related to the local shrimp industry have been brought into spotlight, including the large-scale smuggling of low-quality PL in the local market and the country's low production rate compared to its competitors.

It has been observed that while a major competitor like Thailand has a production rate of 2000 kg per hectare and India's production rate is 800 kg per hectare, in case of Bangladesh, the production rate of 200 kg per hectare is far below the expected output.

The industry is highly fragmented and lacks coordination and only 20 per cent of the total capacity of the processing plants is utilised, local industry leaders said.

Apart from that, the local shrimp exporters are also anxious over the falling prices of shrimp in the world market as the export earning from the sector has dropped by 14.89 per cent in a year.