Chandpur deputy commissioner (DC) Mohammad Mohsin Uddin had written to the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock proposing that the price of hilsa be fixed. In light of that letter, the Cabinet placed the matter before the chief adviser, who agreed to it. As a result, the government is reportedly set to fix hilsa prices soon, not only in Chandpur but across the country.

This was confirmed in a letter from the Chandpur deputy commissioner's office on the night of Tuesday 1 July.

On Thursday 26 June, senior assistant secretary Mu Mahmud Ullah Maruf sent a letter on the matter, under a memo of the Cabinet Division's field administration liaison branch, for the information of the Chattogram divisional commissioner, the Chandpur deputy commissioner and the private secretary to the cabinet secretary.

The letter said the Cabinet Division's proposal on fixing hilsa prices, from the commissioners' fortnightly confidential report for the first half of June 2025, was placed before the chief adviser, who approved it. Instructions were also given to take the necessary steps and inform the Cabinet Division of progress on implementation.

The letter said that some unscrupulous traders and wholesalers in Chandpur and neighbouring districts were taking advantage of the flavour of Chandpur hilsa to demand whatever price they liked, putting it completely out of buyers' reach. Because hilsa is caught in other districts as well as Chandpur, an initiative by the Chandpur district administration alone to fix the price would have no real effect.

Alongside Chandpur, hilsa is caught in Barishal, Chattogram, Cox's Bazar, Bhola, Patuakhali, Barguna, Jhalakathi and many other coastal districts. Although fishermen have no production cost for hilsa in rivers or the sea, the price of the catch is controlled by unscrupulous traders or syndicates, the letter said.

Since hilsa is produced naturally, its price needs to be fixed with regard to the cost of catching it and other related expenses, and the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock could be instructed to take the necessary steps, the letter said. The chief adviser approved this proposal.

Chandpur DC Mohammad Mohsin Uddin said the proposal to fix the price had been approved by the chief adviser on the basis of the letter to the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock. "We only made the proposal; now the ministry will sit on it. Whether the price will be set by the ministry, or whether we will send a proposal from here, has not yet been decided," he said.

He said hilsa is caught and traded in 10 to 12 districts including Chandpur. "We thought that even if we fixed the price in Chandpur with stakeholders, the fish would be sold in other districts. That is why we asked the ministry to fix the price. The proposal is meant to keep the hilsa market out of the grip of syndicates and stop prices from being too high," he said.

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