The usual bustle had still not returned to the wholesale fish market at New Market in the capital on the third day of Eid-ul-Azha. With huge numbers of people having left Dhaka for their village homes for the Eid holiday, the city is largely empty, and this has affected one of the capital's busiest wholesale fish markets too.

On ordinary days, from dawn until 9am, the stretch of New Market from the post office to the fruit section is thronged with fish wholesalers, workers and buyers. The whole area is loud with the unloading of fish from trucks, the breaking of ice and the cries of auctions.

But at around 7:30am on Saturday, 30 May, that familiar scene was missing.

Only two or three wholesalers were seen selling fish on the road next to the New Market grocery market, and the number of wholesale buyers was also very small.

On the stagnant market, wholesaler Abdus Salam said the fish suppliers who serve Dhaka's neighbourhoods had not yet returned to the city after Eid. Their absence was the reason for low supply and few buyers that day, he said, but he hoped the market would return to its normal pace within the next two or three days.

The manager of a fish seller from Nawabganj in Lalbagh police station area said demand for fish is high for a few days after Eid, so he had come to the market on his employer's instructions to buy a small amount of rui fish.

Meanwhile, after several days of eating sacrificial beef over Eid, many people are now talking about wanting fish.

Mohammad Amir Hossain, who came from Elephant Road to buy hilsa, said: "I've eaten beef for the last two days. Now I'm thinking of a light fish curry, so I've come to the market."

Wholesalers hope the New Market fish market will be bustling again as before from the start of next week.

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