Bangladesh has decided to expand a program to test whether it is feasible to grow vannamei in the country, after a successful trial last year.
In April 2022, Bangladesh’s Fisheries Department granted permission to four more companies in the country’s Chattogram region to cultivate vannamei on a trial basis, The Daily Star reported 23 May. They are the MK Hatchery, Dafa Feed and Agro Products, Niribili Hatchery, and Midway Scientific Fisheries. Agreements about the pilot farming with the companies are expected to be signed by the end of May.
In January 2022, the fisheries department awarded two other companies – Growtech Aquaculture and Fahim Seafood Khulna – permission to trial vannamei farming, The Financial Express reported, bringing the number of firms with permission to implement the experimental farming of vannamei to 11 total. Their permits will run from one year following the first release of vannamei fry into their pilot ponds.
The fisheries department kicked off the pilot program in 2019 by granting permission for two trial projects, including one run by M.U. Sea Foods, which has cooperated with the Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute (BFRI) on a project in Khulna region that began in March 2021. The first crop of vannamei shrimp was successfully harvested four months later.
Separately, a batch of one million vannamei post-larvae were imported from Thailand in March 2021 to be raised in four ponds operated by the BFRI in Paikgachha, Khulna, Bangladesh.
Another company, Agribusiness Enterprise Development and Services, received the third pilot license in October 2020
The Bangladeshi government’s offer of additional vannamei trial permits comes in response to demand for vannamei shrimp from local processors and exporters that have seen their sales of black tiger shrimp and freshwater shrimp decline steadily since 2014 due to fierce competition from lower-priced vannamei shrimp produced in China, Southeast Asia, India, and Ecuador. The trial projects will help the Bangladeshi government to determine whether Bangladesh should switch its shrimp economy toward a focus on vannamei. In the past, the government has been reluctant to allow farming of vannamei shrimp over fears of potential harm to native species, including black tiger shrimp.
"The government should have allowed the production of more productive vannamei eight to nine years ago. We are now far behind the neighboring countries, which are benefiting financially by cultivating vannamei commercially," Niribili Hatchery Owner Lutfar Rahman told The Daily Star. "We can't compete globally by exporting only lobsters and bagda [black tiger shrimp]. If the government allows vannamei farming commercially, the shrimp export industry will revive."
Photo courtesy of Agribusiness Enterprise Development and Services
