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Frozen food exporters blame EPB for false export outlay

BDNEWS, Dhaka
The Bangladesh Frozen Food Exporters Association (BFFEA) claimed that the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) has made a false statement about the export outlay from the sector.
Exporters said this statement could affect the industry in both national and international levels.
BFFEA officials said Bangladesh earned over US$ 300 million during the first nine months of the 2004-05 fiscal, but the EPB recorded it as $ 166.74 million.
When the EPB revealed the export performance for the period of July-February, an exporter of frozen food said, "We were shocked to see the statistics as $ 155 million."
But, the real figure was $ 290 to $295 million, he added.
"A committee comprising the BFFEA, the Department of Fisheries and the EPB, has been formed to investigate into the matter," said Abul Bashar, chief executive officer of BFFEA.
Exports of frozen foods have never fallen except the year 2001-02 as a consequence of the September 11 incident, he claimed.
"We have collected information from the Board of Investment, banks and our exporters to cross-examine the EPB's information," said Quazi Monirul Haq, immediate past president of BFFEA. "Every time, we got EPB's information wrong," he added.
As the frozen food exporters are facing problems to comply with the standards set by the US and EU, Haq said this false statement will give a further blow to the exporters and farmers as well.
Exporters have been asked again to send their export statistics by May 15 to remove the confusion inflamed due to EPB's statistics, he added.
Frozen food recorded an export of $ 390.25 million in the 2003-04 fiscal and the target was set at $ 430 million for the current fiscal.
For the first nine months of the current fiscal, the strategic export target of frozen food was $ 311.75 million and the EPB has shown an export income of $ 166.74 million marking 46.51 percent short of the target.
Whereas the BFFEA said they have exported frozen foods worth over $ 300 million for July-March of 2004-05.
The US is the single largest importer of Bangladeshi frozen foods (about 35 percent) followed by the European Union (about 55 percent), BFFEA sources said.