Dried fish elevates livelihood of Sylhet people

SYLHET, July 31 (UNB): A good number of people at Mahtabpur village under Lamakazi union in Biswanath upazila have been able to develop the standard of their livelihood through dried fish business.

The business centring dried fish which has huge demand in the domestic market has created wide employment opportunity for many people of Mahtabpur.

During visit to the village recently, this correspondent found dried fish traders and the workers employed by them passing very busy time.

They were either collecting fishes from arats (wholesale fish markets) or drying those under the open sky or loading dried fishes onto vehicles to transport those to Sylhet city.

Some traders said dried fish production begins in November and it continues till pre-monsoon period.

Tengra and Puti are among the main varieties of dried fish, they added.

Asked about the number of dried fish traders at the village, locals put the figure at 40 and said the traders employed some 200 workers for processing dried fish.

They added that an amount of Tk 0.2 million is provided to the workers per month. Helal Ahmed, who started dried fish business this year, said investing Tk 0.5 million in the business, he has already made profit of Tk 0.1 million.

Terming dried fish business profitable, another trader Awal said he has never faced financial losses since he started the business a few years back.