Ending all the waiting, silver hilsa from Bangladesh's Padma has finally reached West Bengal. On Wednesday 17 September the first consignment, 50 tonnes of hilsa in 10 trucks, arrived at Petrapole land port in North 24 Parganas district.
The hilsa has already been unloaded from the Bangladeshi trucks onto West Bengal trucks. From there the fish will go straight to Howrah fish market, West Bengal's largest wholesale fish market.
From the morning of Thursday 18 September the Padma hilsa will reach retail markets across West Bengal, letting food-loving Bengalis taste the fish before the Puja.
Prices expected to ease
Syed Anwar Maqsood, general secretary of the fish importers' association, said prices would be a little high for the first lot. But West Bengal's markets are already full of hilsa from Gujarat, so the more hilsa that comes from Bangladesh, the more prices will fall.
Anwar Maqsood said the wholesale price of hilsa would be Rs 1,500 to Rs 1,600 a kg, and it would sell at Rs 1,700 to Rs 1,800 in retail markets.
This year the Bangladesh government has allowed 37 firms to export 1,200 tonnes of hilsa.
Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.
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