ACI Agrolink

With the export potential of the world shrimp market in Bangladesh amounting to USD 3 billion of the total annual USD 32 billion global trade, the sustainability of the shrimp market in Bangladesh is heavily linked to the livelihood of millions. Low farm productivity, together with the lack of market integration and various compliance requirement are undermining the sustainability of this important sector for Bangladesh.

In the southern region of Bangladesh, farmers often cannot produce crops due to the high levels of salinity. Moreover, many of these farmers depend on Sundarbans for their livelihood, as making money from shrimp cultivation is simply no longer possible for them. Damage to the natural habitat and the mangrove forest occurs as a result.

ACI Agrolink Limited has contributed towards improving the livelihood of farmers and has established an export-oriented shrimp and fish processing business with a state-of-the-art processing factory. With this venture, the PFAN-supported project will increase the farm productivity of shrimp and ensure good price with climate resilient sustainable shrimp production, as well as allowing the people at the bottom of the pyramid to return to land to produce shrimp.

ACI Agrolink will provide training, raw material and other knowledge and input to the climate vulnerable farmers of the coastal community to transform their conventional culture to climate-smart aquaculture and also by employing sustainable, efficient cold supply chain and quick-frozen technology they will provide farm-to-fork freshness quality products. The business model includes contract farming and managing a sustainable and efficient cold supply chain to bring the shrimp from farms to a low-energy intensive processing unit with minimum handling and the shortest possible time to keep the freshness and quality intact. From the processing plant the product is shipped out directly to international buyers.

Since starting with the PFAN journey in 2020, ACI Agrolink continues to receive PFAN support, with PFAN’s Tipping Point Technical Assistance as the most recent support from PFAN. Nonetheless, the processing plant is already in operation, with the total export volume in 2019-2020 amounting to a total of USD 8.5 m. Alongside the tremendous impact the project has made to the shrimp export sector, the project also greatly contributes to reducing GHG emissions by 4,353 ton of CO2 per year and aims to empower women through training at least 50% of women shrimp farmers and 90% of women to be employed in the factory.