Hilsa exports to India through Benapole port resumed on Wednesday (27 October) after a 22-day ban. By Saturday (30 October), four days later, Bangladeshi traders had exported 33 tonnes of hilsa through the port. The trade will continue until 5 November.

Swapan Kumar Das, revenue officer in the cargo section of Benapole Custom House, confirmed this on Saturday night (30 October).

A 22-day ban on catching and selling hilsa was imposed from 4 October to 26 October to protect hilsa breeding. As a result, hilsa exports to India were also halted.

Sahadur Rahman Khokon, proprietor of the hilsa exporter Sototta Fish, said he had received permission to export 40 tonnes of hilsa to India. Because fewer hilsa were caught in the country's rivers and sea this year and the export window was short, he had managed to export 24 of the 40 tonnes. The government has now extended the export period again by 10 days, so he has been able to export the remaining 16 tonnes, he said.

Aswadul Islam, inspector at the Benapole Fish Inspection and Quality Control Office, said they had received the directive on hilsa exports to India, and exporters have begun exporting the remaining hilsa. Exporters shipped 33 tonnes of hilsa in the last four days. So far a total of 1,141 tonnes of hilsa have been exported to India, with 3,511 tonnes still to go, he said. The remaining hilsa must be exported by 5 November.

Although hilsa exports abroad are stopped because of a production shortfall, the government this year allowed 115 exporters to export 4,600 tonnes of hilsa to India for Durga Puja, the Hindu community's biggest religious festival. The directive was to complete exports by 10 October. But the order to stop catching hilsa to protect breeding suddenly halted exports to India. The export price has been set at $10 per kg of hilsa, and the consignments are being exported with duty-free facilities from the customs of both India and Bangladesh.

Source: Banglanews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.