Bangladesh should go for commercial cultivation of vannamei species of shrimp or king prawn to capture the global market. The king prawn currently accounts for 80% of global market share, where Bangladesh has no presence. Bangladesh is falling behind as commercial cultivation of the species is still far away. It's now mostly in the stage of pilot projects. Also read: Govt determined to end shrimp production & exportation problems: Rezaul This subject was discussed on Sunday by shrimp exporters and cultivators in a seminar at the Khulna’s Shrimp Tower. At the seminar, they demanded that commercial cultivation of vannamei be allowed instead of running pilot projects. Exporters and cultivators are thus unable to get loans, they said. Also read: Shrimp farmers count losses from cyclone in Koyra Speakers at the seminar said that there is no alternative to vannamei as the production of tiger shrimp and prawn are decreasing in the country. To save the waning shrimp industry, government’s intervention is needed along with the permission to cultivate vannamei commercially. Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association has been appealing to the government for the last 20 years to allow the cultivation of vannamei shrimp to keep the shrimp industry alive. As a result, the government allowed the pilot cultivation of this variety of shrimp in September 2019. The project is being piloted at the Paikgachha Saltwater Center in Khulna under the Department of Fisheries and the Fisheries Research Institution. The average production is more than 9 tons per hectare. Read Shrimps inflated with jelly seized in Jashore The association provided statistics that show the average production of tiger shrimp in Bangladesh is 341 kg per hectare. In neighbouring India, the average production of vannamei is 7,102 per kg hectare. This means that the production of vannamei is 6,761 kg more per hectare than that of tiger shrimp. Vice President of Bangladesh Frozen Food Exporters Association S. Humayun Kabir said that due to lack of raw material (shrimp), only 28 out of 105 frozen fish processing and exporting companies in the country are operational and remaining have closed. The production is meeting only 10-15 per cent of the capacity of the companies and as a result, the processing cost is also increasing. This industry has come to the brink of collapse. To revive this industry, there is no alternative to increasing production by cultivating vannamei. Fourteen other Asian countries have been exporting vannamei, he said. Read Crocodile rescued at Bagerhat shrimp enclosure freed in the Sundarbans He demanded that permission be given for commercial production of vannamei shrimp and save the industry.

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) is reluctant to resume cricket in the country without a green signal from the government.   Right after the outbreak of the coronavirus, the board stopped all kind of cricketing activities in the country. Along with this, the board adopted work from home policy for some administrative works.    Before the lockdown, cricketers were busy playing in the Dhaka Premier League- country’s most prestigious List-A event. The league had been postponed after the sixth game on March 16. Since then, all the cricketers are passing time at home.    “We want to resume the game in Bangladesh and the cricketers are also hoping for so. But it’s not up to us. At first, we need everything to go back to normalcy. We are waiting for a green signal from the government. We have no plan to bring the cricket back to the field without the government instruction,” Nizamuddin Chowdhury, the BCB CEO, told the media recently.   Not just the domestic cricket, Bangladesh’s international schedules also were also hit hard due to the novel coronavirus. The Tigers were scheduled to tour to Pakistan at the beginning  of April, but coronavirus forced this series to be rescheduled in future. Along with this, Bangladesh’s Ireland tour was also postponed indefinitely.   Bangladesh, however, is yet to confirm anything about the Sri Lanka tour which is scheduled in June-July this year. The BCB CEO said, “We have not postponed the Sri Lanka series yet. We are observing the situation in Sri Lanka. To be honest, we are not in a position to talk about the future of this series. We are currently thinking much on the series which are postponed due to the virus.”   Nizamuddin also said the board is thinking to resume Bangladesh’s cricket with the domestic events which are on halt now. At the same time, cricketers are also hoping the board will not cancel this year’s Dhaka League which is the main source of income for hundreds of cricketers who only play in domestic cricket.    Meanwhile, as per the latest update from the authority, more than 11000 people tested positive for coronavirus in Bangladesh while 186 of them died. The country was maintaining strict lockdown but recently, the government decided to ease the lockdown as it permitted shopping malls to reopen on a limited scale and offering prayers at mosques with proper precaution.