Bangladesh

Bangladesh's frozen fish industry aims to boost the value of exports almost fourfold to reach a target of around €1.25 billion annually in 2008, elevating the industry to the ranks of the world's major seafood exporters. David Hayes reports that, while doubts exist whether this ambitious target can be achieved in such a short time, the government is backing fisheries development.

Expansion of the fishing industry is an important means of creating employment and raising the incomes of Bangladesh's large rural and coastal communities. Bangladesh is one of the world's most crowded nations with its 140 million population squeezed into 144,000 square km of land. Although many of the population live in poverty, Bangladesh has achieved a respectable economic growth rate for more than a decade and the fisheries sector is well established as the country's second highest earner of foreign exchange after garment manufacturing.

The fishing sector is Bangladesh's largest employer after agriculture, with more than 13 million people involved, mostly in prawn farming for export to Europe, the United States and Japan. f While the government also supports the growth of fisheries production for domestic consumption, the export driven prawn farming sector aims to increase export production in future by boosting output and value added processing. This will require a large increase in investment to expand the area used for prawn farming and development of support facilities including laboratories, feed mills and technically qualified staff.

Prawns dominate

Bangladesh exported 33,560 tonnes of prawns and 12,600t of other fishery products worth a total of € 356,189 million in financial year 2004/5. The total export value represented a 7.7 per cent increase with exports worth €330 million the previous year. Farmed prawns accounted for about 75 per cent of total prawn exports while 25 per cent were caught by Bangladesh's trawler fleet.

“Bangladesh exports mainly prawns. Fish do not contribute much to exports. They are just five per cent of total fisheries exports,” according to Mohammed Abul Bashar, chief executive officer of the Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association. “Marine shrimp account for 70 per cent of the Bay of Bengal marine catch. Most are exported to Japan. All processing, such as removing heads, is done onboard the trawlers. Fish also are processed onboard for export,” he said.

The EU imports about 49 per cent of Bangladesh's prawn exports in terms of value. Belgium is the largest within the EU market followed by Britain, the Netherlands and Germany. The United States is a major importer taking about 35 per cent of Bangladesh's prawn exports by value. The other major market is Japan, which buys six per cent.

“There are no dumping problems yet with any countries as we are exporting below dumping levels,” Bashar said, “We are equivalent to nearly ***of the global prawn market while Thailand, Vietnam, India, Ecuador, Brazil and China all are bigger players than us.”

Bangladesh has set a total fisheries production target of 2.1 million t. for 2004/5, an increase of about four per cent compared with last year. Government agencies, private enterprises and non-government organisations (NGOs) are all involved in helping develop fisheries production.

“The government is helping poor fishermen to cultivate fish,” Bashar noted, “The government is doing some projects at village level to help coastal development.”

Fisheries production has expanded greatly during the past decade with all sectors reporting a doubling of output. While prawn farming and the marine prawn catch are aimed at export markets, the growing marine fish catch and the development of fish aquaculture has helped improve the diet of most Bangladeshis during the past decade.

Current fisheries production is slightly more than double the 896,000t recorded in 1990/1. Aquaculture has developed into the largest fisheries producer during the past decade. Aquaculture production totals about 860,000t, accounting for 43 per cent of total fisheries output and representing a fourfold increase compared with 211,000t in 1990/1.

Inland open water fisheries are the second largest source, with fishery production totalling about 710,000t a year, accounting for 36 per cent of total fisheries output and representing a 60 per cent increase compared with 443,000t in 1990/1.

Marine fisheries, including mariculture, has also grown substantially during the past decade. Marine fisheries production is about 430,000t annually, accounting for 21 per cent of total fisheries output and representing a 79 per cent increase compared with 241,000t in 1990/1.

Dhaka fish curry

Fish is an important source of protein in Bangladesh and plays a major role in creating rural and coastal employment. Cheaper than animal meat, fish accounts for 63 per cent of animal protein consumption, according to government statistics. Most fish are eaten with rice. Per capita fish consumption is 14.24kg a year while actual annual fish demand is estimated to be 18kg per capita. This is equivalent to total annual fish demand of 2.4 mnt and is about 20 per cent larger than the present combined inland, aquaculture and marine fisheries production.

One reason that fishery demand remains unmet is that Bangladesh's pelagic and deep sea fishery resources are largely undeveloped. This is due partly to the country's small trawler fleet which catches less than 30,000t annually and concentrates on catching prawns. Although marine fisheries is expected to develop in future, investment in production growth is likely to remain limited while prawn aquaculture remains the focus of fisheries investment.

Bangladesh's fishing fleet numbers about 87 trawlers along with 44,000 mechanised and non-mechanised fishing boats. An estimated 1.3 million people directly earn their living from marine fisheries of which many are inshore fishermen.

“We have a long coast but there is no planning by government or private sector to exploit marine fisheries,” Bashar said, “At least 90 per cent of the trawler catch is consumed domestically.”

Bangladesh has a short, 710km coastline. Marine fisheries cover 166,000 square km of open sea including the EEZ waters. Inland fisheries total 4 million ha. of which 297,000 ha. are closed water areas, including the coastal shrimp farming zone covering 140,000 ha. A further 100,000 ha., set aside for brackish water shrimp farming, remains unused. Inland fishery resources include rivers, canals, lakes, flood plains, land depressions and about 1.3 million household 'tanks' (artificial as well as natural) and ponds where peasant farmers rear fish for household consumption.

Prawn farming has been the major growth area in fisheries production for more than a decade due to the sector's large export potential. Prawn farming and related activities in Bangladesh generate €255 million in sales annually and do not include the marine prawn trawler catch. penaeus monodon, known as Black Tiger prawns, are the major farmed prawn and output is worth €206 million a year, while farmed macrobrachium rosenbergii production is valued at €47 million a year.

“There are tens of thousands of prawn farmers,” Bashar said. “Prawn farmers typically rent land from marginal farmers to use for prawn farming. In fact, prawn farming began in the 1980s on marginal coastland known as khash land that was owned by the government and given to various people in plots of up to 30 ha. This has since been converted to shrimp culture.”

Who controls what

The Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association (BFFEA) is a key organisation in Bangladesh's fish sector, due to the industry's structure and processing companies' financial strength. Prawn farming is run by large numbers of medium and small sized prawn farmers who supply their products to processing companies, mostly through middlemen. Most processing companies are not involved in prawn farming, but play a key role in the export sale of frozen prawn products.

BFFEA has 84 members, all of whom own at least one fish processing plant. A few members are integrated operators with their own prawn farms and processing facilities, while other processors buy in their prawn and fish supplies. Bashar noted that two members own fishing trawlers and are members of the Marine Fisheries Association, which has 20 members, mostly trawler companies that fish the Bay of Bengal.

Apart from promoting the interests of frozen food processors, packers and exporters, BFFEA is responsible for establishing contacts with foreign importers and organisations to develop new export opportunities. BFFEA also advises the Bangladesh government on fishery policy issues, quality control, packaging, marketing and strategies to develop the local fishery industry.

Bangladesh's prawn farming industry consists of four major interest groups. Hatcheries, prawn growers, prawn traders and middlemen that collect and supply shrimp, and export processors each have their own association.

Brackish water shrimp (Black Tiger prawn) accounts for about 85 per cent of farmed prawn production and is grown on about 37,400 prawn farms, while macrobrachium rosenbergii is reared on about 105,000 small farms.

Black Tiger farms average about 4.5 ha in area while macrobrachium rosenbergii is generally grown by poor and marginal farmers with plots averaging 0.3 ha in area. While prawn culture is carried out in most parts of the country, all brackish water prawns are reared and grown in five districts: Chittagong, Cox's Bazaar, Kulna, Shatkhira and Bagerhat.

Freezing

Following the rapid development of prawn farming, Bangladesh's frozen fishery exports have doubled in tonnage and risen threefold in value since the early 1990s. As part of ambitious plans to further expand fisheries production BFFEA has set a target to achieve €1.25 billion in frozen fishery exports under its Vision 2008 programme that is being supported by the government and will involve expanding and upgrading facilities at all stages of prawns production and processing.

Bangladesh's 50 hatcheries will need to expand production to five to eight billion shrimp larvae a year to produce the necessary prawns to hit the €1.25 billion target. Currently about 50 hatcheries produce an estimated four billion shrimp fry each year. Most hatcheries are located in the Cox's Bazaar coastal region. However, as prawn farming is concentrated in southwest Bangladesh, most shrimp larvae have to be transported by air to the prawn rearing regions.

“Shrimp hatcheries are well organised and have invested a lot,” Bashar said. “Prawn growers are usually small farmers that lease land for one or two years at a time. The prawn traders and middlemen are big operations, some are very big. Fish processors are very big as well.”

To achieve the Vision 2008 export target, BFFEA has asked the government for a further 100,000 ha of available marginal land to be brought under aquaculture to raise prawn production to 300,000t annually. Investment a will also be needed to construct additional prawn feed mills in future to reduce feed costs as most prawn feed currently has to be imported.

“Brackish shrimp culture is growing slowly as the government controls the land. This is traditional culture, not semi-intensive or intensive prawn farming,” Bashar explained. “There is no plan for this as it is capital intensive and shrimp farms are in the cyclone-prone coastal zone. Banks are not interested to lend to these farms because of the risk.”

Apart from increasing prawn production, the development of value-added processing also will be needed to increase export earnings from in future. Following earlier over-investment in prawn and fish processing plants, Bangladesh has about 128 government and private sector processing plants located in major fisheries areas. Of these 65 are in operation and follow US FDA Regulations and EU Directives to ensure processed products meet export market requirements.

The European Commission has approved 57 of the 65 operational processing plants which have an annual production capacity of 260,000t. Bashar noted that many of the plants run at about only 20 per cent to 25 per cent of their installed capacity due to the shortage of fish for processing.

Most fish and prawns processed in modern processing plants are exported. Fish caught or raised for local consumption are sold in traditional street markets. Development of value-added processing has grown substantially during the past few years as processors try to upgrade and extend their product range. About 50 plants are involved in value-added processing. Apart from headless prawns, Bangladeshi processors now offer various further processed products, including butterfly shrimp, cooked butterfly shrimp with various sauces, shrimp on skewers and other preparations.

BFFEA's Vision 2008 programme also involves the introduction of internationally accepted certification and reference laboratory facilities, and training laboratory technicians to test and certify product quality.

“Shrimp exports are very *** prospective as the world market is growing, but there are some technical issues with importing countries,” Bashar said, adding

“Traceability is an issue in Europe. Our government is keen to promote traceability; now they are introducing laws for traceability in a complete way for the whole fishery industry. We are facing some antibiotic problems as well, but they are small. Maybe they originate via fishfeed at the hatchery level or grower level. The EU is using Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) food and fish testing to prevent the problem. The Department of Fisheries certifies every shipment. So far we have not lost exports. It is not mandatory to test. Some farmers face disease problems. White spot is the basic disease, but it is present just in some areas. It has occurred, but farmers have still survived.”