Ice crisis, bad transport hit hilsa fishermen

Acute crisis of ice and lack of preservation and transportation facilities have forced the fishermen in the southern coastal areas to sell hilsa at a throwaway price.
Fazlu Gazi, president of Mahipur-Alipur Fish Traders Association of Kalapara in Patuakhali, said the fishing trawlers, each loaded with 50 to 1,000 maunds of hilsa, started returning to the fish landing centre from the sea since two days before Eid-ul-Fitr.
Crisis of ice and the miserable condition of Kalapara-Kuakata road put the fish traders in trouble with this huge catch of hilsa.
So the fish traders, keeping half of their catches in the local cold storage, are being forced to sold out the remaining fish at Tk 140-150 per Kg as it was a extremely perishable item, he said.
Sources from different parts of Kalapara, Patharghata, Daulatkhan-Charfession coastal fishing areas of Patuakhali, Barguna and Bhola and wholesale market of Barisal city said daily production of ice in the local factories of the areas decreased to 3,000-3,500 cans against the minimum demands of 17,000 cans per day.
About eight cans of ice for daily use and about 20 cans of ice for weekly use are needed in every fishing trawler, the trawler owners’ association sources added.
Maznu Gazi, owner of Gazi Fishing of Kuakata, said, ‘Now we are trying to buy ice from Cox’s Bazar, Khulna and Bagerhat, which is causing extra cost of Tk 130-150 per can and which is also time consuming, he added.
Ebaidul Huq Chan, former president of Barisal Chamber of Commerce and Industries, director of FBCCI and one of the leaders of Mohipur-Kuakala ice factory syndicate, said erratic power supply, load shedding and low voltages for the last one month severely hampered production of ice.
Anisuzzaman Khan Kamal, president of Barisal district ice factory owners’ association, said more than Tk 40 cores have been invested in ice-industries depending on hilsa fish processing and due to power crisis it would incur heavy losses.
Market sources said the price in the fish landing centres and wholesale points each maund of standard size hilsa is Tk 6,000 to Tk 7,000 against the previous rate of Tk 14,000 last week.
According to that estimate, price of hilsa cannot exceed Tk 170 to Tk 180 per kg in the retail market.
However, the common people have to purchase the fish at the rate of Tk 300 to Tk 350 per kg on account for the dominance of the middlemen in the market.

Courtesy of NewAgebd