The Bangladesh government has decided to send around 4,000 tonnes of hilsa to Bengal for the Durga Puja season.
Bangladesh’s ministry of commerce, in an order issued on Wednesday, listed 79 fish exporters from Dhaka, Khulna, Pabna, Jessore and Chittagong who have been given permission to export 50 tonnes of hilsa each to Bengal.
The order issued by Mohammad Jakir Hossain, deputy secretary of the export wing of the ministry, said none of the exporters will be allowed to send more than the sanctioned amount of 50 tonnes of hilsa each.
The hilsa export could be stalled at any time if the government of Bangladesh felt the need to do so, the order said.
Bangladesh has been gifting hilsa to Bengal every Puja since 2019, making an exemption on its blanket ban on the export of the fish.
In 2019, Bangladesh started with an export of 500 tonnes of the fish. The Puja hamper has grown over the years.
This year’s allocation has gone up significantly from last year’s 2,900 tonnes.
“The import of hilsa will begin on Thursday. The entire process will have to be wrapped up by October 30, according to the deadline set by the Bangladesh government,” said Syed Anwar Maqsood, secretary of the fish importers’ association in Calcutta.
Dhaka has had a ban on hilsa export to India since 2012. Only the Puja gift
from the neighbouring country is what arrives in Bengal now.
Hilsa importers said the fish would reach wholesale markets in Howrah and Calcutta, and from there to the retail bazaars across Bengal.
“The hilsa from Bangladesh should start reaching the markets from Sunday,” said an importer.
“We hope the entire consignment can reach us within the stipulated time,” the fish importer said.
Earlier this month, the importers had appealed to the deputy high commissioner of Bangladesh to allow at least 60 days to import the hilsa instead of the 30-odd days.
In a letter to Andalib Elias, deputy high commissioner of Bangladesh in Calcutta, the association said Bangladesh had last September gifted 2,900 tonnes of hilsa to Bengal, ahead of Durga Puja, but only 1,300 tonnes could finally make it across the border within the specified time.
“There is a huge demand for proper hilsa in the retail markets right now and this demand will continue to rise through the festive season in October,” said Subol Das, a fish retailer in Gariahat.
“What is in circulation now is hilsa from Myanmar,” Das said.
The hilsa yield in Bengal has dwindled from around 80,000 tonnes in 2001 to 15,000 tonnes in 2013 to around 11,000 tonnes in 2021, largely because of unregulated fishing in the Bay of Bengal.
The hilsa fish breed in the Gangetic delta and migrate to the sea.
“We have observed that a small hilsa starts its return journey towards the sea after reaching a weight of 60g,” said Asim Kumar Nath, who has been studying the migration of hilsa at Sidho-Kanho-Birsha University.
“If small hilsa is caught then the process of creating a stock of full-sized hilsa in the sea is hindered,” he said.
