The government may allow the import of SPF brood-stock of shrimp (mother shrimp) to increase production amid the fall of frozen foods exports.
After having consent from fishery ministry, the commerce ministry will make final decision about the import of mother shrimp.
The issue was discussed at a meeting of Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association (BFFEA) with the commerce ministry at the latter’s office in Dhaka yesterday.
“If fishery ministry will give no objection, commerce ministry will bring some amendments to the import policy” said a commerce ministry official who attended the meeting.
Additional Commerce Secretary ATM Murtozza Reza Chowdhury, ndc presided over the meeting. BFFEA President Md Amin Ullah was present, among others.
According to Export Promotion Bureau data, frozen foods made a record fall of 9% to $544m in 2012-13 as fish production decreased due to disease in prawn, the major frozen food item of Bangladesh in for export.
In the previous fiscal, the export was over $598m, the data showed.
Md Amin Ullah thinks global recession was one of the reasons behind the fall of frozen foods export. He urged the government to amend import policy in order to allow import of mother shrimp or black tiger.
BFFEA President suggested application of semi-intensive methodology to increase production capacity.
SPF means the absence of targeted viral, bacterial and protozoan pathogens from shrimps. SPF shrimps will help increase the production, but the SPF mother shrimps have to be imported first. At present, the locally collected brood-stock from the sea and resultant white spot diseases at the farm level in Bangladesh.