Fish output surpasses 4.0m tonnes in FY '17

Bangladesh's fish production recorded a 61 per cent rise in last ten years and crossed the 4.0 million tonnes mark in the last financial year.

Officials Friday attributed the rise in production to quick introduction of modern technology in local fish farming.

The provisional data of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) showed that the country's inland and marine fish production together rose to 4.01 million tonnes in FY 2016-17 from 2.49 million tonnes ten years ago in FY2006-07.

Director General of the Department of Fisheries (DoF) Syed Arif Azad told the FE that they are expecting fish production to cross the target of 4.2 million tonnes by 2021 as modern technology is helping higher production in the country's limited water bodies.

According to BBS, the production of inland fish (sweet water fish) was 3.32 million tonnes and the marine water fish was 0.697 million tonnes in FY2017.

Bangladesh, one of the largest fish producers in the world, meets a major portion of protein by its domestic fish production.

According to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Bangladesh is the fourth largest inland fish producer in the world after China, India and Myanmar.

The BBS data showed that fish production in Bangladesh is maintaining a steep rise with nearly 6.0 per cent year-on-year average growth over the last few years.

Five years ago in FY2013, the inland and marine fish production in the country was 3.35 million tonnes, which rose to 3.54 million tonnes in FY2014, 3.70 million tonnes in FY2015, 3.87 million tonnes in FY2016 and 4.0 million tonnes in FY2017.

Syed Arif said the local farmers have adapted to the modern technology quickly resulting in a remarkable vertical extension of domestic fish production over the year.

"Within the limited water bodies, we have been able to raise our production remarkably by applying modern technology."

Besides, since 2009-10 the government has been offering different policy supports including tax holiday, tax exemption on feed imports to fish farmers and fish industry people which have brought an impressive result on production, he told the FE.

He said, "If you look at our policy towards Hilsa fish over the last few years, its production increased to 0.5 million tonnes in FY2017 from 0.4 million tonnes a year ago."

Bangladesh has 3.92 million hectares of inland open water (capture) like rivers and beels where 1.05 million tonnes of fish were produced in FY2015.

In the 795,841 hectares of inland close water (culture) like ponds and seasonal water bodies, the country produced 2.20 million tonnes of fish in the FY2015, the DoF data showed.

Syed Arif said the DoF has a target to increase the per capita fish intake to 60 grams by 2021 from the current level of 56 grams.

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