Bangladesh crab farmers struggling to survive amid COVID-19

With no sign of farmers’ recuperation of losses in sight and the re-start of crab exports on a meagre scale, the crab farmers in the country’s coastal regions have been left struggling to survive amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

As the sale of crabs is regarded the only source of earning for their livelihoods, the crab farmers in Bangladesh’s coastal areas, including Cox’s Bazar, Noakhali, Barisal, Satkhira, Khulna, Bagerhat and Chandpur districts, are now plagued with double-pronged problems.

Firstly, the crab farmers, most of which are dependent on bank loans for farming, counted heavy losses in the first four months of the year due to sudden suspension of crab exports, and hence they have been put in a deplorable economic condition for their financial inability to come out of the deep hole of losses.

Secondly, the beleaguered crab farmers are facing harsh reality of not being able to export crabs to foreign countries, especially China as per the expected-level.

According to the Bangladesh Live and Chilled Food Exporters Association (BLCFEA), Bangladesh exports crab worth Tk 6 billion to Tk 7 billion annually. China alone accounts for 90 per cent of the exports.

Other countries importing crabs include Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, the European Union and the United States.

Moreover, the demand for crabs increases during January and February due to Chinese ‘New Year’ celebration and during the time, farmers can haggle good price for their produces.

But, farmers, traders and other people involved in the business have been fighting to survive following the suspension of the crab export to China from the beginning of the year due to the deadly coronavirus that originated from its Hubei province, infecting over 8.4 million people globally and claiming the lives of over 450,000.

Though the crab export has been reopened from 26 April, the crab farmers still fight to survive as they have already incurred huge losses.

“Crab is our family business. My father also was involved in the business. More than 30 years, we have been running the business. In 1997, we faced loss due to cyclone.

"This year, the loss is noteworthy as I have already faced difficulties to survive,” said owner of the Nishan Enterprise Md Kajol, who has around 50 acres of land for crab farming.

He informed that he had no business during the first four months of the year and lost around Tk 3 million capital due to sudden ban on the crab exports and eventually crabswere left die.

“I was fattening around 15 metric tonnesof crabs worth about Tk 1.5 million at my hatchery at the Chakaria upazila under Cox’s Bazar district ahead of Chinese New Year.

The investment had reduced to almost no money due to sudden import ban by China at end of December 2019,” he added.

Though the export has been reopened from the end of April, he said, now he is not able to supply the crabs as per his expected level due to huge loss during the four months.

“Now I don’t know how I would even pay my debts,” he added.

Another crab farmer of Bagerhat district Kakon Mollah said he lost 4 to 4.5 tonnes of live crabs at the beginning of the year that was worth at least Tk 5.3 million.

“I had taken out a big loan from the Social Islami Bank Limited (SIBL) and Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited (IBBL). The loan amount is about Tk 2.8 million. Now I don’t know how I would even pay my debts,” he lamented.

Debarto Mirda, owner of the Ma Enterprise of the Shyamnagar upazila under the Sathkhira district, said he is a small crab farmer and produces crabs at around Tk 100,000 each month by using around 20 decimal lands for crab fattening.

“My family’s livelihood depends on the crab farming. Last four months, I had no sale. Moreover, I could not collect the money for the crabs I had supplied earlier,” he added.

BLCFEA secretary general Kazi Mahbubul Alam Azad said during the Chinese New Year celebration, demand for crabs in that country usually increases.

But, this year, export shipments to China remained halted for the first four months of the year due to the coronavirus outbreak, he added.

“The markets of Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan had also been negatively impacted by the crisis.

So, we were not able to export crabs to those destinations either. The price of crabs had gone down in the local market too.

Though the export to China has been reopened on a limited scale, it is difficult to recover the losses within short time,” he added.

He said that exporters have suffered losses amounting to over Tk 5 billion during the last four months.

Bangladesh Crab Suppliers’ Association organising secretary Patal Barua said about 50,000 to 60,000 families across the country depend on crab farming.

“Around 3,000 suppliers and 2,000 farmers are involved in the business. Most of the crabs from Bangladesh go to different provinces of China, including Kunming and Guangzhou,” he added.

Patal Barua, also general secretary of the Cox’s Bazar District Crab Traders’ Association, said more than 8,000 families of Cox’s Bazar district are dealing in crab business.

“Crabs are mostly produced in Khulna, Bagerhat and Satkhira districts. Earlier, the crab export figure from Bangladesh was 40 tonnes to 50 tonnes per day. But now the figure came down to 20 tonnes to 25 tonnes per day,” he added.

District fisheries officer of Bagerhat Md Khaled Kanak said ninety per cent of total crabs that are obtained from natural sources and through cultivation are exported to different countries.

“Crabs died in different farms as the export remained halted since the beginning of the year. Around 200 farmers in Bagerhat district have been affected,” he added.

However, director general of the fisheries department Quazi Shams Afroz said Bangladesh government has announced stimulus package of Tk 50 billion for providing loan facilities to the non-crop agriculture sub-sectors, including fisheries, at a 4 per cent interest rate.

“Business community of the crab sector can take the advantage of the stimulus package,” she added.

Sources from the fisheries department and the export promotion bureau said that crab was listed as an export product in 1977. That year, Bangladesh earned only US$2,000 from exporting crabs.

Crabs based on the species remain alive in both sweet and saline water. However, sweet water crabs become small and saline water crabs become big in size.

Of the total 15 species of crabs are available in Bangladesh: four sweet water crabs and 11 saline water or sea crabs.

The farmers buy a baby crab at Tk 10 and sell it at Tk 250 after farming it at a pond or gher (enclosure) for three months. Tk 45 is spent for rearing every crab.

Crabs could be sold thrice a year and a farmer earns Tk 250,000 to Tk 300,000 each time by selling crabs.