Fish worth about Tk 5 to 6 crore is bought and sold every day at Keshabpur in Jashore. Trading some 333 tonnes a day, the market has become one of the largest fish trading centres in the south-west, supplying about 25 districts and, through letters of credit, India too. Around a thousand people work directly or indirectly around it.
Figures from senior upazila fisheries officer Sudip Biswas show that Keshabpur produced 37,631 tonnes of fish in the 2025-26 fiscal year. After meeting local demand of 7,250 tonnes, about 30,381 tonnes went to other districts and abroad. The local economy depends heavily on fisheries, he said, as do the families of workers at the wholesale sheds.
Traders say the market has 27 wholesale sheds and businesses run by about 60 partners, and about 15 trucks carry fish out every day. Silver carp, tilapia, mrigal, rui, black carp and grass carp sell the most. Besides supplying the country, Keshabpur traders also take part in the fish fair in Moulvibazar.
For all the trade, there is anger at the poor facilities. Workers Al-Amin and Imran said the roads around the sheds are badly worn, making loading, unloading and transport difficult, and worse in the rain. With no safe drinking water at the market, they have to drink water from tanks.
Abdul Hannan Biswas, secretary of the Keshabpur fish market, said the market's importance has grown but its infrastructure has not. Repairing the roads, keeping the market clean, providing safe water for workers and bringing in digital weighing would make trading more transparent and benefit fish farmers, buyers, sellers and workers alike, he said.
Fish enclosure (gher) owner Kiramat Gazi said Keshabpur's fish reaches many parts of the country, and better systems for production and marketing would multiply the sector's potential. The report is by Dhaka Mail's Jashore district correspondent.
Photo: Rmrony / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Source: Dhaka Mail
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