Bagerhat: The prices of giant freshwater prawns (Galda Chingri) or the ‘white gold’ of the district as known to the locals have marked a sharp fall due to its poor demand on the international market, causing heavy losses to the growers, reports UNB. Frozen food exporters said the prices have gone down due to its low demand in the global market, forcing the government to look for new buyers. Farmers, however, complained that the selling of their products in rates lower than their production costs has created the current situation, discouraging many to start new businesses.

Upon investigation in sadar upazila’s Barkapur, Fakirhat’s Faltita and Rampal upazila’s Foila Bazar wholesale shrimp markets, an abundance of prawns of all sizes were evident. Being sold between Tk 550 to 700, traders alleged that they are not even meeting their production costs. “I’ve seemingly put all in investment in this trade,” a grieving shrimp trader complained, “it seems the time has come to look for a new business.”

Arshad Ali, a shrimp farmer, whose hatchery in his village of Chunakhola is located at a 150 bigha stretch, lamented that the cost of producing a single freshwater shrimp is Tk 100, but when he comes to sell them in the market, he barely manages to sell it at Tk 40-50.  Molla Motin Hossain, another farmer from Marga village, said all the farmers had expedited mass production of jumbo prawns as a lesson from last year, when the August floods overran their hatcheries and shrimps and they could not meet the supply demands. But this has backfired due to the low demands in both the local and international markets, he added.

Bagerhat District Shrimp Farmers Association president Fakir Mohitul Islam told UNB that 80 percent of the country’s jumbo prawns are cultivated in this district, but the lack of demand in the market is going to ruin this industry.

He urged the government to take necessary steps to infuse life into this industry but looking for new buyers in the international market. Mohitul also added that jumbo prawns of one bigha land used to be sold at Tk 1-1.5 lakh, but now that the number has come down to Tk 60,000-70,000.

The district fisheries office records state that over 78,000 shrimp hatcheries are operating over 71,930 hectares of land. Out of this, 51,736 hectares are dedicated to cultivating tiger prawns (Bagda Chingri) and the rest for jumbo prawns.

During the last fiscal year, over 14,490 mts of jumbo prawns were produced in the region.

District Fisheries officer Md Zia Haider Chowdhury said this region covers the most prawn cultivation demands. They are working with local farmers to use updated technology for more efficient production processes, alongside conducting workshops and providing advice to them. Acknowledging the crisis, he said the government needs to focus on new markets to revive this industry.

Advocate Mir Showkat Ali Badsha, president of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Fisheries & Livestock and Member of Parliament of Bagerhat-2 constituency, told UNB that the crisis is momentary.

“The government is trying its best to fix the issue,” he said, “Hopefully, things will be better by the next fiscal year.”