EFFECTS OF COVID-19 ON FISHERIES PRODUCTS EXPORTED FROM SOUTHWEST BANGLADESH: A CASE STUDY

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed unprecedented challenges for fisheries products export, which serves as a major export driver and employment for the people of Bangladesh. The countrywide lockdown has severely disrupted the supply chain; and port closures and international cargo restrictions have threatened export markets. To unpack the COVID impacts, the detailed fisheries products export-oriented primary data of 45 fish processing plants were collected from Fish Inspection and Quality Control (FIQC), Khulna between January 2020 and December 2021. Ten key informant interviews were conducted with Upazila Fisheries Officer, FIQC personnel and stakeholders of fish processing plants to know the official export data during the pandemic periods. This was followed by further focus group discussions on fish processing plant employees to assess the real impact of COVID-19 on the export of fisheries products in Southwest Bangladesh. In this paper, our study clearly shows that the COVID-19 has resulted in a squeeze export volume of fisheries products during the first wave of Covid-19 from March to May 2020. By 2020, it was observed that the amounts of exported products were somewhat stable, however the unit price (US$/MT) continued to decline. Moreover, the export market improved slightly in 2021 and the unit price of export products continued to rise. We also found some other adverse effects of COVID-19 such as delay in product shipment, increased cost of packing materials, purchase order cancelation from buyers, shortage and the increased price of raw materials, complete shutdown of few processing plants, increased transportation cost, shortage of containers, employee lay off from the company, etc. To meet these challenges, the government must take necessary measures to address this vulnerable sector and formulate appropriate policies to minimize the adverse effects of such uncertainties in the future.