The government of Bangladesh has granted a local company permission to conduct a third pilot project to farm vannamei shrimp in the country, The Daily Star reported on 7 October.
The Agribusiness Enterprise Development and Services from Chattogram will grow the vannamei shrimp in an isolated area at Khuruskul of Cox's Bazar, which will be put under the supervision of the Department of Fisheries (DoF) and Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute (BFRI).
In a meeting held in the middle of last month, the DoF has decided that the pilot project will be implemented in one year and will be extended based on the first year’s results.
Agribusiness Enterprise Development and Services’s Managing Partner Nizamuddin Mahmood Selim told the daily his company has not received any notification from the DoF about the project. He said Agribusiness Enterprise Development and Services will look into requirements from the department carefully before making any decision.
This will be the third pilot project permitted by the local government. Non-governmental organization Shushilan and another seafood company last year got approval from the government to carry out trial projects in Khulna, a key shrimp region in the country. However, they have not started their projects yet.
Shushilan’s Chief Executive Mostafa Nuruzzaman told the daily early rainfall has prevented it from initiating the work at their project. He said his organization plans to start work at it in November with a target to begin seeding in February 2021.
Agribusiness Enterprise Development and Services and Shushilan did not respond to requests from SeafoodSource for comments from 8 October.
The Bangladeshi government’s move came amid rising demand for vannamei shrimp from local processors and exporters. These companies have seen their sales of locally-produced black tiger shrimp and freshwater shrimp decline consistently since fiscal year 2014-2015 due to fierce competition from lower-priced vannamei shrimp produced in China, Southeast Asia nation, India and countries in Latin America.
Bangladesh earned USD 333 million (EUR 283 million) from shrimp exports in the last fiscal year, 39.4 percent lower than USD 550 million (EUR 468 million) in fiscal year 2013-2014, the daily said, citing data from the Export Promotion Bureau.
The export value continued to fall 3 percent year-on-year to nearly USD 97 million (EUR 83 million) from July to September of the current fiscal year.
The government, however, was reluctant to allow farming of vannamei shrimp in the country as they feared that the culture of the species would be harmful for native species, including black tiger shrimp.
DoF Deputy Director of Aquaculture Azizul Haque said post larvae imported for the pilot projects must be pathogen free. They will be quarantined and tested at labs authorized by the DoF and BFRI before they can be grown in the trial farms.
Photo courtesy of Chuchai/Shutterstock
