The Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock has requested the commerce ministry to take necessary steps to provide a 25-per cent cash incentive on the export of chilled fish, officials said.
In January last, Bangladesh Live and Chilled Food Exporters Association requested the Department of Fisheries to ensure the 25 per cent cash incentive.
Following that, the fisheries department in February last wrote a letter to the ministry concerned requesting the latter to take action in this connection.
Taking into consideration the request, the fisheries and livestock ministry finally wrote to the commerce ministry, a source said.
The frozen fish sector currently enjoys 7.0-10 per cent cash incentive on shrimp exports and 2.0-5.0 per cent on other fish exports.
Presently, members of the live and chilled food exporters association export crab, eel fish and chilled fish. The sector currently enjoys a 10 per cent export subsidy for crab and eel fish exports.
The exporters have been severely affected due to the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, mentions the association's letter that was earlier sent to the fisheries department.
Currently, a large number of exporters across the country export chilled fish. The association thinks that the export of chilled fish is riskier than that of frozen fish.
This is unfortunate that the product is being deprived of the government's cash incentive facility, according to the association.
The government should consider providing cash incentive on the export of chilled fish to encourage the sector's businessmen and also offset the Covid-19 pandemic losses as the sector has a huge export potential, the exporters said.
Contacted, Khairuddin Ahmed, chairman of the chilled food exporters' association, said, "Traders in this sector have suffered huge financial losses due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic in the last two years."
"Incentives are needed in this sector to make up for the loss. Without the direct cooperation of the government, the traders of this sector will not be able to recover their losses," he added.
Shrimp, Rupchanda, Tilapia, Rui, Katal and other freshwater fishes and sea fishes in the form of chilled items are being exported to Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, India, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and different countries in Europe.
On an average, Bangladesh exports Tk1.50-2.0 billion worth of chilled fishes annually, according to the association.
Chilling is a process by which the temperature of the fish is lowered to a point near freezing but not below it by means of heat withdrawal, according to an article available on ResearchGate.
The freezing point for different fish species varies between -0.6 and -2.2?C and depends on the concentration of the cell fluids.
It is usually taken as equal to -1?C. Fish and fishery products processed in this way are called chilled products, reads the article.
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