Dried fish traders in the coastal district of Cox’s Bazar witness a fall in their profit around Tk150 crore this year due to unexpected rain during the fish processing period of September and early October.
In addition, the downswing in fish production is also going to hit employment.
Sources said as many as 20,000 labourers only in Naziratke area of Cox’s Bazar find jobs in fish production during the peak production time and over one lakh people are directly or indirectly involved in the business.
The production of dried fish fetches the dried fish traders nearly Tk500 crore every year, but this time is the exception.
“Usually, we make a good profit, but this year rain was a bar to our business that might lead every trader to incur a loss of Tk20 lakh to Tk22 lakh this year,” said Md Abu Saleh, a dried fish trader at Naziratek in Cox’s Bazar.
Saleh who is involved in the business for years said he is concerned that profit would come down heavily this year.
There are 250 more traders in Naziratek engaged in dried fish production in their land.
Besides Naziratek, dried fish are also produced in Sonadia Island under Maheshkhali Upazila, Sundaripara Chhanua riverbed in Pekua, Teknaf, Shamlapur, St Martin’s Island and Baro Ghop in Kutubdia upazila.
The dried fish profit fall was noticed during a recent visit to the fish firms at Naziratek and Moheshkhali organised by Bangladesh Shishu Audhikar Forum.
In Sonadia, different species of dried fish worth about Tk40 crore to Tk50 crore are produced every season.
Of them, Chhuri, Laitta, Faisshya, Rupchanda, Matia, Poa, Chingri, Lakkhya, Kamila, Korati, Rupsha and Surma are popular.
Besides meeting local demands, the fish are also exported to different countries.
According to trades, Rupchanda is the top priced dried fish, the grade one of which costing Tk3,500 a kg while its small ones are sold at between Tk1,000 and Tk1,200.
Another species of dried fish namely, Chhuri, is sold at a wholesale rate of Tk800 per kg while medium-size Chingri at Tk500 a kg, Surma (big size) at Tk2,000, medium ones Tk1,200 and small ones Tk450.
Shahadat Ullah, president of Naziratek Shutki Traders Multipurpose Cooperative Society, told the Dhaka Tribune that only from Naziratek, they produce nearly 5,000Kg dried fish every day in pick seasons, but during off-peak seasons like February and April next year, the production comes down to 2,500 Kg.
He said poor communications system and lack of electricity hit their business hard.
They appealed to different quarters to solve their problems but in vain, he added.
Asked about it, Amithosh Shen, director, Cox’s Bazar Fishery Department, said they have already taken steps to provide support to the dry fish traders.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
