Few people once knew that fish scales can help save lives, but that is now the reality. Discarded material is not necessarily waste: life-saving medicines are being made from fish scales, and they are also used to make cosmetics and food supplements. A product called collagen, sold in shops across Europe and the United States, is also made from fish scales, says Mahbub of Cumilla.

Mahbub told BSS he had never imagined he would trade in fish scales; now this once-discarded material is his whole focus. About 12 years ago he met a buyer of fish scales in Dhaka. "Once I started walking that road, I never had to look back," he said.

Mahbub is the son of Yakub Ali of Sangraish in ward 16 of Cumilla city, and the eldest of four children. For 14 years he has cut fish at Cumilla's Rajganj bazar, and for 12 years he has traded in fish scales. Following his example, several other young men have started the same business.

Mahbub told BSS that one day in Dhaka he met a trader "like an angel". The trader said that if Mahbub collected fish scales from homes or markets, dried them and brought them to him, he would pay Tk 40 a kg. Back in Cumilla, Mahbub took a container to Rajganj bazar one morning and stayed until noon collecting scales. He dried them on the bank of the Gomti river near Jhakunipara and handed the trader 6 kg, receiving Tk 240 in cash at Tk 40 a kg. That built his confidence and enthusiasm, and he took up collecting fish scales as a profession.

Since then he has hired people at markets across Cumilla city, including Rajganj, Chawkbazar, Ranir Bazar, Tomsom Bridge, Badsha Miar Bazar, Padua Bazar, Chauara Bazar and Cantonment Bazar. Six people, all on monthly salaries, help him: they collect scales from the markets and he dries and prepares them. Wholesalers from Dhaka come to his house every month to collect the scales. On average he can dry about 600 kg a month ready for sale. Following Mahbub, Badsha of Badsha Mia Bazar and Khalil of Chandina have also started the business.

Mahbub said that at first people in the area looked at him differently and even despised him, saying he brought home and dried the fish scales everyone else threw in the bin. Now, because the business needs little capital, many are becoming interested in it.

Cumilla district fisheries officer Sharif Uddin told BSS that dried fish scales are being exported abroad. The district fisheries office is giving Mahbub the advice he needs so that he can do the work properly.

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