Tk1,000cr Hilsa trade hoped this year in Lakshmipur
Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Friday
February 03, 2023

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 03, 2023
Tk1,000cr Hilsa trade hoped this year in Lakshmipur

Bazaar

Sana Ullah Sanu
06 November, 2020, 11:35 am
Last modified: 06 November, 2020, 12:00 pm

Related News

  • Diversifying products for economic prosperity
  • Mexico keen to expand trade with Bangladesh
  • How Europe needs freight trains to cross Russia from China
  • Largest biz summit in Mar to showcase trade opportunities
  • China's 2022 trade with Russia hit record $190 bln - customs

Tk1,000cr Hilsa trade hoped this year in Lakshmipur

Beating last year’s entire record in just four months, Lakshmipur Hilsa catchers target 38,000 tonnes of catch worth around Tk1000 crore this year 

Sana Ullah Sanu
06 November, 2020, 11:35 am
Last modified: 06 November, 2020, 12:00 pm
Hilsas are on sale at a market in Lakshmipur. Around 12,500 Hilsa have been caught this year, which worth around Tk650 crore. Preservation of Hilsa fry and measures to protect the brood Hilsa has paid off nicely. The photo was taken recently. Photo: TBS
Hilsas are on sale at a market in Lakshmipur. Around 12,500 Hilsa have been caught this year, which worth around Tk650 crore. Preservation of Hilsa fry and measures to protect the brood Hilsa has paid off nicely. The photo was taken recently. Photo: TBS

Fishermen in Lakshmipur caught 12,500 tonnes of Hilsa worth around Tk650 crore in the July-October period this year, which is more than double the entire yield of last year.

Fishermen, fisheries officers and traders have said that Hilsa trade in the country's southern district will cross Tk1,000 crore soon with the annual catch of 38,000 tonnes if the uptrend continues.

Anisur Rahman, chief scientific officer of Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute, River Centre Chandpur, said preservation of Hilsa fry and measures to protect brood Hilsa has helped increase the Hilsa size. This will gradually raise the level of production.  

Fishermen and others are disappointed that though the district plays a crucial role in Hilsa production and employment, people do not know much about Lakshmipur Hilsa – mostly caught from the Meghna River.  

 Photo: TBS
Photo: TBS

"Around 80% of our catch goes to Dhaka and Chandpur and the fish are sold as Hilsa from Padma River", said Lakshmipur fisherman Safik Ullah. 

Though Hilsa is found in coastal areas and in major rivers of the country, the local fish market is obsessed with catches from the Padma River. Hilsa from the river has a phenomenal taste and flavor, and its price is usually higher than other catches.    

Lakshmipur Hilsa traders are also critical of government data. In their opinion, the district produces way too much more fish than what the government estimates put about.

In Lakshmipur, people related to at least 13 other professions indirectly depend on the burgeoning Hilsa business due to lucrative market prices, rising production and people's age-old attraction to the fish. It is especially people on the coastal islands and char areas of the district who are mostly dependent on Hilsa catching.   

Kamalnagar fishing net trader Munsur Mollah said Hilsa businesses involve other professions, such as investors in fishing boats, wholesalers and hoarders, transport workers, fish traders and small vendors, ice factory workers,net manufacturers and sellers and small grocers on the riverbank.  

Photo: TBS
Photo: TBS

"Hilsa is the lifeblood for all of them," he added.  

The fish is found almost in all the five upazilas of Lakshmipur, but the catch is good in the Meghna at Ramgati and Kamalnagar. Locals said the district has 88 kilometers of the Meghna stretch. The vast riverbank has 25 Hilsa selling points where the catches change hands.

According to the Lakshmipur district fisheries office, the southern Bangladesh district produced 20,380 tonnes of Hilsa in the 2019-20 fiscal year– or 56 tonnes of catch on average per day. Production in the four months till October this year rose to 12,500 tonnes, with a daily average of more than 104 tonnes. 

Photo: TBS
Photo: TBS

In the meantime, two local fishtraders'association leaders, Abdur Rab and Mehedi HasanLiton, claim that the fisheries office's report on the production of about 104 tonnes of Hilsa per day is not correct. According to them, over 100 tons of Hilsa are sold every day from four major selling points of the district alone.

Local fish trader Md Nasir Uddin said he takes one tonne of Hilsa to Dhaka or Chandpur at least three days a week. After his Hilsa arrives in Chandpur or Dhaka, they are sold as Hilsa from the Padma.

Photo: TBS
Photo: TBS

According to the fishermen, traders and the fisheries department, there are 50,252 fishermen in Lakshmipur and of them 40,000 are Hilsa catchers. Local fish traders' association leader Md Mahmudar Rahman Belayet said that at least 2,000-3,000 people are involved in various occupations at each Hilsa selling point, apart from district-level fish businesses.

Mohammad Billal Hossain, Lakshmipur district senior fisheries officer, said 80% of the Hilsa caught in the district goes to Dhaka and Chandpur. 

Photo: TBS
Photo: TBS

On the discrepancies between field-level and fisheries office data, he said the fisheries authorities are updating data regularly on the basis of inputs provided by their selling point and field level staffers.

Photo: TBS
Photo: TBS

Bangladesh / Top News

Lakshmipur / Hilsa / Trade

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • International Monetary Fund logo : AP via UNB
    IMF sets time-bound reform agenda as it releases first tranche of loan
  • Shipped Bhola gas to cost higher, yet cheaper than spot LNG
    Shipped Bhola gas to cost higher, yet cheaper than spot LNG
  • January exports rise nearly 6% riding on high-value RMG items
    January exports rise nearly 6% riding on high-value RMG items

MOST VIEWED

  • Representative Photo: Pixabay.
    Refined sugar prices rise by Tk5 per kg
  • Import curbs drive up spice prices
    Import curbs drive up spice prices
  • File Photo: Saikat Bhadra/TBS
    Market manipulation: Holding companies accountable may not be easy
  • The cultivation of winter vegetables is in full-swing on the banks of Chattogram’s Dohazari Shankh river. Winter vegetables are cultivated in large areas in Munshir Char on the north of the river while in Dharmapur, Rasulabad, Chagachar on the south.The vegetable produce in Dohazari area, where this photo was taken, are also exported to various Middle East countries. Photo: Mohammad Minhaj Uddin.
    Dohazari vegetable hub picks up steam as winter arrives
  • TCB to procure 2.20cr litres of soybean oil for OMS
    TCB to procure 2.20cr litres of soybean oil for OMS
  • Price of soybean oil up by Tk12, sugar by Tk13
    Price of soybean oil up by Tk12, sugar by Tk13

Related News

  • Diversifying products for economic prosperity
  • Mexico keen to expand trade with Bangladesh
  • How Europe needs freight trains to cross Russia from China
  • Largest biz summit in Mar to showcase trade opportunities
  • China's 2022 trade with Russia hit record $190 bln - customs

Features

Six Jeep Wranglers and a special XJ Jeep Cherokee set out into the depths of Lalakhal, Sylhet for an experience of a lifetime. Photo: Ahbaar Mohammad

Jeep Life Bangladesh: A club for Jeep owners to harness the power of their vehicles

18h | Wheels
While the Padma bridge in operation is changing the lives of millions in the south for the better, passenger rush to Shimulia ghat died down. Photo: Masum Billah

How are the Shimulia ghat businesses faring after Padma bridge?

20h | Panorama
After so many investments going embarrassingly wrong, as was the case with Sam Bankman-Fried, perhaps tech investors’ preference for less experience will wane. Photo: Bloomberg

Are you the next Steve Jobs? Good luck raising money in 2023

20h | Panorama
An elderly couple's lonely battle to save Dhaka's trees

An elderly couple's lonely battle to save Dhaka's trees

1d | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

A proper price formula can help investors to plan big

A proper price formula can help investors to plan big

10h | TBS Round Table
Rumors about Sarika that everyone thinks are true

Rumors about Sarika that everyone thinks are true

8h | TBS Entertainment
Mugging rife in Tejgaon, murder in Wari

Mugging rife in Tejgaon, murder in Wari

11h | TBS Current Affairs
What secrets are hidden behind Adani's wealth?

What secrets are hidden behind Adani's wealth?

9h | TBS Stories

Most Read

1
Bapex calls candidates for job test 9 years after advert!
Bangladesh

Bapex calls candidates for job test 9 years after advert!

2
Leepu realised his love for cars from a young age and for the last 40 years, he has transformed, designed and customised hundreds of cars. Photo: Collected
Panorama

'I am not crazy about cars anymore': Nizamuddin Awlia Leepu

3
Photo: Collected
Energy

8 Ctg power plants out of production

4
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) logo is seen outside the headquarters building in Washington, U.S., September 4, 2018. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas/File Photo
Economy

IMF approves $4.7 billion loan for Bangladesh, calls for ambitious reforms

5
Photo: Collected
Court

Japanese mother gets guardianship of daughters, free to leave country

6
Fund cut as Dhaka's fast-track transit projects on slow spending lane
Infrastructure

Fund cut as Dhaka's fast-track transit projects on slow spending lane

EMAIL US
[email protected]
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2023
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - [email protected]

For advertisement- [email protected]