Shrimp exporters and farmers here are passing through a hard time due to dwindling demand for shrimp in the western countries triggered by world economic crisis.??
Exporters of shrimp, once the second highest foreign currency earner of Bangladesh after readymade garments (RMG) and jute and jute goods, fear further fall in demand in the West as people in the U.S. and Europe are cutting down on their consumption in the face of continued slide in their economies for the last 7-to years.??
According to the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), Bangladesh exported frozen food, mostly shrimp, worth $ 598.42 million during the last fiscal year, down 4.26 percent compared to the previous fiscal year. An EPB official said more than 80 percent of the total export went to the USA and the EU, the top two destinations of Bangladesh's shrimp export.
