Durga Puja, the biggest festival of the Hindu community, is only days away, and a Bengali kitchen without hilsa at festival time is hard to imagine. For Bengalis in West Bengal, hilsa means the tasty silver hilsa of the Padma from Bangladesh.

In recent years Bangladeshi hilsa has reached West Bengal's tables just before the Puja. This year, however, none has yet been seen there, and markets in Kolkata and elsewhere in West Bengal are missing it.

Even so, Kolkata's markets are awash with hilsa before the Puja, coming from Gujarat instead of Bangladesh. A large share of the hilsa in West Bengal's markets now comes from Gujarat, where a record amount has been caught this year, though it is considered much less tasty than Bangladeshi hilsa.

West Bengal's Bengalis are making do with Gujarat hilsa, but they still hope Bangladeshi hilsa will arrive as a gift just before the Puja so they can enjoy the old taste.

Because Bangladesh's hilsa production is lower this year, trucks of hilsa are no longer coming to West Bengal as before. Instead, special trucks carrying on average 100 to 150 tonnes of hilsa a day are arriving from Gujarat at the Howrah wholesale fish market.

Gujarat hilsa of 700 to 800 grams, and of 1.2 kg and 1.3 kg, is available. At wholesale, 1 kg hilsa with roe costs Rs 600 to 800, and hilsa without roe Rs 900 to 1,000.

Syed Anwar Maksood, secretary of the Fish Importers' Association of West Bengal, said demand for hilsa is high but there are no imports, which usually keeps prices high. "This year a great deal of hilsa is coming from Gujarat. So much has come to Kolkata's markets that it has broken a 50-year record. Whenever hilsa is plentiful, the price falls a lot."

"Bangladeshi hilsa used to come here for the Puja," he said. "We have written requesting it, but we do not know what will happen. Our current situation with Bangladesh is already bad. Still, we have asked them to send hilsa for Durga Puja as every year, and we hope they will."

He added that hilsa landings in Bangladesh have also been much lower, production has fallen everywhere, and the rise in Gujarat's output has changed the whole game. Ordinary Bengalis in West Bengal hope Bangladesh will soon allow hilsa to be sent across.

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