Using Pohela Boishakh as an opportunity, prices of silvery hilsa have soared in Bhola, known as the 'home of hilsa'. Dishonest traders have raised prices overnight on the pretext of the festival, emptying the pockets of ordinary buyers. A hilsa weighing one kg now costs Tk 3,500 in the market, the highest in several years.

A visit to the town's Kitchen Market and other markets on Monday (13 April) found people of all walks of life crowding in to buy hilsa for Pohela Boishakh. But because of the high prices, many low- and middle-income buyers went home without hilsa, wanting it but unable to afford it.

In Bhola's fish markets, a one-kg hilsa was selling for Tk 3,500, hilsa of 700-950 grams for Tk 2,500 to Tk 3,000, those of 500-600 grams for Tk 2,000 and those of 300-400 grams for Tk 1,400. Even jatka, young hilsa, was selling at Tk 1,000 a kg.

Buyer Md Foyez Uddin said: "I came to the market to buy hilsa for Pohela Boishakh. But even the cheapest, jatka, is Tk 1,000 a kg, and I was shocked to see 500-600 gram hilsa at Tk 2,000. I don't have that kind of income, so I'm going home with rui instead."

Another buyer, Swapan Chandra, said he could not buy after seeing the prices. "Using Pohela Boishakh as an excuse, fish sellers have pushed hilsa beyond my means," he said.

Another buyer, Taslima Begum, said that four or five days earlier a kg of 500-gram hilsa had cost Tk 1,500 to Tk 1,600, but today the price was Tk 2,500. "How can we buy hilsa at such prices?" she asked.

Hilsa sellers Md Nirob, Billal and Mohiuddin said there is a two-month ban on catching hilsa in the rivers, and not all fishermen go out. Demand for hilsa in Dhaka is also high because of Pohela Boishakh, so prices are high at Bhola's fish landing ghats. They said they too buy at high prices and cannot make more than Tk 100-200 profit, but that once Pohela Boishakh and the ban are over, hilsa prices will fall by half again.

Md Kamal Bepari, a wholesaler at Bhola's Tulatuli fish ghat, said most fishermen do not go to the river because of the ban. With Pohela Boishakh, there is pressure to send hilsa to wholesale markets in Dhaka, so hilsa is being bought and sold even during the ban. With more wholesalers, traders and buyers at the ghat, prices go up at auction, he said.

District fisheries officer Md Iqbal Hossain said action will be taken against anyone who catches hilsa, or buys and sells it at ghats and markets, during the ban.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.