West Bengal receives season’s first Hilsa shipment from Bangladesh

West Bengal received around 50 metric tonnes (MT) of Hilsa from Bangladesh on Thursday- the first consignment of the season. With the catch low this time, the size of fishes is, however, smaller and their prices dearer, importers said.
“Around 50 MT of Hilsa from Bangladesh have already reached West Bengal. Another 30 – 40 MT are expected to reach over the weekend,” said SA Maqsood, secretary of the Fish Importers’ Association in West Bengal.
The Bangladesh government has allowed around 49 companies to export around 2,420 MT of the fish through the Petrapole border this year. The remaining shipments will reach over the next few days, people aware of the development said.
Hilsa is often tagged as the “Queen of Fish” for its taste and the Bangladeshi-hilsa found in the Padma River, is considered to be tastier than its Indian counterpart, which is found in the Hooghly River in West Bengal. Outside West Bengal, the Bangladeshi Hilsa is in great demand in Assam and Tripura.
While the former Sheikh Hasina-government imposed a ban on the export of Hilsa since 2012, every year since 2019 a few thousand metric tonnes of the fish were allowed to be exported to India during this time of the year. It was considered as a Durga Puja gift.
“In 2021, 2022 and 2023 we imported around 4,600 MT, 2900 MT and 3,950 MT of Hilsa from Bangladesh respectively,” he said.
Earlier this year the fish importers’ association wrote to the interim government in Bangladesh to revoke the ban. On September 21, the ministry of foreign affairs of Bangladesh issued a statement that they were allowing around 3,000 metric tonnes of Hilsa to be exported to West Bengal.
“By Friday, the imported Hilsa reached the wholesale markets in Howrah, Sealdah, Patipukur and Siliguri. On Saturday they started hitting the local retail markets. But this time the size of fishes is smaller and their prices dearer. The production has been low this year in Bangladesh,” said Maqsood.
Importers said that the average size of fishes which reached West Bengal varies between 700 grams to around 1 kilo compared to 1 kilo – 1.5 kilos during previous years. The prices this year are higher this year and ranges from ₹1,000 to s 1,500 in the wholesale market.
Every year during the monsoon shoals of Hilsa swim several kilometres from the sea into the estuaries and upstream along the River Hooghly for spawning after which they return to the Bay of Bengal. The eggs hatch in freshwater and the sub-adult Hilsa swims downstream into the sea. Another lot comes during February-March.
“The Hilsa catch in West Bengal, however, has been going down over the years for multiple reasons. This year the production has been bad. So far only around 2000 metric tonnes have been hauled,” said Shyamsundar Das, joint secretary of West Bengal United Fishermen Association.
A senior official of the state fishery department said that in 2011 the Hilsa catch was around 16500 metric tonnes. It went down below 10000 MT over the next three years. In 2017 around 26000 metric tonnes of Hilsa were caught, the highest haul in recent times. In 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic it went down to 2085, the lowest in recent years.
In 2021, 2022 and 2023 fishermen in West Bengal could catch only around 6170 MT, 5600 MT and 6800 of Hilsa were caught.
There are multiple factors behind the dwindling catch starting from unbridled fishing, pollution, rainfall, decreasing depth in rivers because of siltation and river flush around this time of the year among others.
“They are very sensitive to the subtle changes. They would migrate from sea to rivers to breed and would swim in that direction where they get favourable conditions. If they don’t find suitable conditions in River Hooghly in West Bengal, they enter the Meghna-Padma estuary in Bangladesh,” said Das.
Experts said that siltation on the riverbeds near the mouth of the river is a major factor. If the Hilsa doesn’t get a depth of 30 – 40 feet, it won’t swim upstream. In the Hooghly this depth has come down to around 20 – 25 feet due to years of siltation
“In India there is a ban on fishing from mid-April to mid-June. But we also need to increase the fishing-net size so that the juvenile fishes could be spared. Bangladesh has introduced tough laws and is getting results. The country is getting bumper catch almost every year. Now a days we hardly get Hilsas more than 1.5 kilos in Hooghly River,” said the fishery department official.
The result is that a Hilsa fish weighing more than 1.5 kilograms is selling at ₹2000 – 2500 per kilogram in Kolkata. While a decent-sized Hilsa is hard to find what is mostly available in the market are juvenile hilsa weighing around 500 – 700 grams.