Fish exports to Bangladesh from wholesale markets in Calcutta and Howrah have stopped. Imports are stalled, too.
Not a single truck carrying fish for the neighbouring country has left for the border outpost in Petrapole in North 24-Parganas in three days and several traders said they aren’t sure when exports would resume.
Over 60,000kg of rohu, katla, chitol, punti, bata and other varieties of fish reach markets in Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna and other places every day.
Exporters in Bengal said the bulk of the fish sent across the border is sourced from Jabalpur, Raipur, Indore, Bilaspur and Allahabad. Only a small amount is procured locally.
Fish exporters place their orders with suppliers in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh according to the demand from across the border. The demand for different varieties of fish from Bangladesh varies from time to time.
Over the last few days, consignments of fish packed in styrofoam boxes have been lying at the wholesale fish market in Howrah, one of the biggest hubs from where fish is exported to Bangladesh.
“There has been no fish export to Bangladesh in three days. After the unrest eased in the past fortnight, exports had picked up for a day or two. But it has now stopped completely,” said Syed Anwar Maqsood, a fish exporter and secretary of Howrah Wholesale Fish Market.
“The losses run into several crores of rupees and we don’t know when things would start moving.”
On a usual day, six trucks carrying around 10,000kg of fish each would leave for the border outpost in Petrapole on their way to Bangladesh.
“Trucks carrying fish reach the Petrapole outpost, where the boxes are taken off and kept in warehouses before they are reloaded on trucks meant for Dhaka. Usually, it takes a day or two to reach fish markets in Bangladesh.”
While truckloads of fish remain stuck at the Petrapole outpost, separate consignments lie packed at the Howrah wholesale fish market, waiting for despatch.
The unrest in Bangladesh has also resulted in a complete stop of the import of fish from Bangladesh, several traders said.
Fish such as pabda, pangash and small tangra would reach Calcutta and Howrah from Bangladesh on a regular basis. The flow has stalled.
“Close to 70,000kg of fish used to come from Satkhira, Dhaka and Sylhet. The import has come to a halt following the unrest,” Maqsood said.
Fish exporters in Bangladesh said they are waiting for normality to return. “We are keeping our fingers crossed,” said Kazi Abdul Mannan, director of the Seven Star Fish Processing Limited, based in Pabna in Bangladesh.