Pohela Boishakh is only a day away. Although it is not part of long-standing Bengali tradition, many people want hilsa with panta bhat on their menu that day, and there is a great deal of excitement about hilsa around the festival. But the reality is quite different. Eating panta-ilish on the first day of the Bengali year is now very hard, especially for people on limited incomes, mainly because of sky-high hilsa prices in the run-up to Boishakh.

On the evening of Sunday (12 April), at the Agora superstore in Segunbagicha in the capital, each one-kg hilsa was selling for Tk 4,500.

Some buyers, stunned by the price, told Jago News that anyone's eyes would pop at what hilsa was selling for before Boishakh. The fish is now beyond the reach not only of the poor but of the middle class too.

A buyer named Abu Ali said: "I thought I would buy a hilsa if it was within my means; the children insisted on eating hilsa at Boishakh. But I was shocked to hear the price here."

Agora sales representative Mehedi Hasan said large hilsa were simply not available, which was why prices were high. That day at Agora, each 700-gram hilsa was selling for Tk 2,200, each 500-gram hilsa for Tk 1,020 and each 300-gram hilsa for Tk 380.

A tour of the markets found that prices were high not only at Agora but at other superstores too, with the same upward trend in various markets in Dhaka.

At Khilgaon Railgate market, sellers were asking Tk 3,700 to Tk 4,000 for a one-kg hilsa on Thursday evening. They were asking Tk 2,800 to Tk 3,000 for hilsa of 800 to 900 grams and Tk 1,800 to Tk 2,200 a kg for hilsa of 500 to 600 grams.

In that market, small hilsa of 300 grams or less were available at Tk 1,000 to Tk 1,200 a kg, the lowest price, with three to four fish to a kg.

At Malibagh market, hilsa prices seemed Tk 100 to Tk 200 higher than in Khilgaon. Visits to several markets found wide price differences depending on the size of the fish.

Bijoy, a seller at Malibagh market, said: "The demand now around Pohela Boishakh is much greater than the supply of hilsa. That is why prices are high."

Many people were seen leaving the markets after hearing the price. A buyer named Mallika Yasmin told Jago News: "Everyone wants to eat a little panta-ilish at Boishakh. But I have come to the market for several days and not found hilsa within my means. Prices are rising day by day. I'm going back again today, and prices seem even higher today."

Buyers said hilsa prices in the capital's markets had been beyond ordinary people's reach for nearly a week before Boishakh, and reached an extreme at the last minute. Ordinary people demanded stronger market monitoring to preserve the festive mood.

Many buyers who could not afford hilsa were angry. A woman named Munmun said: "Whenever Boishakh comes, this syndicate becomes active. But the government doesn't see it. Market monitoring is done only in name. Coming to buy hilsa today, I feel like I've come to buy gold."

Sellers also said hilsa prices had risen by Tk 500 to Tk 700 a kg in a week. Faruk Hossain, a fish seller at Khilgaon market, told Jago News that they had to buy fish at high prices from the wholesale depots. Demand around Boishakh is high, but fewer fish are being caught in the rivers this time, and there is also a ban on catching jatka.

"Because supply is short, the wholesalers have raised prices. We can't buy at a high price and sell at a low one," he said.

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