Dried fish dealers are in despair due to the shortage of local fish
Photo: Barta24.com
Rajapur of Barishal's Agailjhara upazila, known as the fish area of local species, and its neighboring Ramsheel dried fish village are in full season. There is a demand for dried fishes(Shutki) from this village abroad. However, the members of the families making a living in the rural areas are suffering from the shortage of indigenous fish species.
On Sunday (February 11) after talking with the residents of Shutki village, it was revealed that the number of different species of fish including Punti, Desi Sarpunti, Pabda, Kai, Shol, Raina, Khalse has decreased to a great extent. So even in the full season, the work is much less than before.
Avani Roy, a shutki trader of Rajapur village of Bakal union on the western border of Agailjhara upazila, said that more than five hundred families in the region are involved in the shutki business. Poysarhat River on one side, between the bill areas of Kotalipara on the other side, Shutki village has developed in different areas of Poysarhat, Trimukhi and Rajapur villages. In the past, dried fish of various species of freshwater and saltwater fishes processed in rural areas have been exported to foreign countries to satisfy the domestic demand of the country in the past. There is a demand for dried fruits especially from Dhaka, Chattogram, Sylhet region and Agartala in India. The families involved in Shutki Palli are engaged in the seasonal business for six months from the first of Ashwin month to Falgun month of the year, hoping to make profit from it. There is a demand for dry fishes here in the markets of Dhaka and Chattogram. Local and foreign wholesalers come and take dry fishes from here. Again, even going to the Karwan Bazar in Dhaka, the rural traders sell dried fish. However, most of the traders do business with loans from moneylenders and loans at high interest rates through various local channels, but at the end of the season, after paying those loans, they are left with nothing.
Locals Nikhil Mandal and Mahadev Baroi said that due to the geographical environment for more than a century, there are many types of local fish in Poisarhat, Rajapur and Trimukhi Shutki Palli, Bajuri, Baim fish were highly valued. In Shutki Palli, native species of fish are cut, cleaned in water and naturally dried in the sun and stored for sale. No toxic chemicals like formalin are added to the fish in Shuntki Palli. So everywhere there is the appreciation of this country's Shutki.
Businessman Akhil Mondal said that the main attraction of the buyers in the demand is the dried fish. Traders Manmoth Roy, Ashok Roy, Zainal Chowkidar, Mangal Adhikari, Naresh Talukder said that after buying one maund of raw fish from the market and drying it, 15 to 20 kg of dried fish is available. On an average, one maund of dried fish is obtained by drying three maunds of raw fish. A maund of dried fish is sold for eight to nine thousand takas. Sandhya Adhikari, Ayana Begum, Popi Adhikari, Shobha Rani of Rajapur village who are engaged in fishing in rural areas said that although they are engaged in fishing for six months of the year, they spend the remaining six months half-starved.
They said that boys and girls are studying in school. We have to live with hardships with the income we get from fishing. They also said that in the beginning of the dry season, local fish is more available, but after the month of Kartik, their misery has increased as the fish in the bill is less. Desperation is also working among them due to the decrease of native fish.
Avani Roy, a dry fish trader from Rajapur, said that they are stuck in the net of debt at the end of the year due to not getting loans on easy terms from the government.
The families involved in Shutki Palli have been demanding loans on easy terms from the relevant departments of the government for years, but they have always been ignored.
