Shrimp export fell by 37 percent, fetching US$ 131.72 million in the first half of 2004-05 financial year against the target of $211.3 million while the income during the same period of last fiscal was $208.3 million, according to the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) statistics.

Industry sources attribute the shrimp export fall to the arrival of a low cost variety called Vannami, which has earned considerable popularity in the global market.

China, a major shrimp exporter, introduced Vannami in 2002 and it became popular in the next year. As India, Thailand and Vietnam have started cultivating this new variety and are offering cheap rates, buyers are now lukewarm about Bangladeshi Galda variety, which is costlier than Vannami.

Shrimp exporters said production cost and mortality rate of Vannami are lower than Bangladeshi variety. Moreover, the new variety is also tastier than the local variety.

Presently, a pound of Vannami prices $3 to $3.5 while Galda costs around $4.8 in the international market.

"We urged the Department of Fisheries (DoF) much earlier to allow us to cultivate the new variety locally so that the exporters could keep pace with the international market," said an official of Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association (BFFEA).

"After dilly-dallying, the DOF in December last year asked the Fisheries Research Institute to conduct a study on the viability of Vannami cultivation in Bangladesh," the BFFEA official said.

Apart from Vannami, price slump in the global market has also badly affected shrimp export income. In last October a pound of shrimp was sold between $5.5 and $5.6 but now the price is $4.8, exporters said.

Besides shrimp cultivation was heavily hampered due to the devastating deluge in last July-September, BFFEA added.

Meantime, shrimp export is set to face another blow this fiscal year as the buyers are cutting back orders fearing outbreak of waterborne diseases in the aftermath of devastating tsunami in the region in December 26.

The US importers have been hesitant to place orders anticipating an outbreak of cholera and diarrhoea in shrimp producing countries. However, a US embassy official in Dhaka attributed the fall in export orders to shipment of substandard frozen food.