Export of hilsha banned for next six months

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Doulot Akter Mala
The government has imposed ban on export of hilsha for the next six months to augment supply of the same in the local markets.
An inter-ministerial meeting held Wednesday with adviser in-charge of the agriculture ministry CS Karim in the chair took a decision to this effect.
The Department of Fisheries (DoF) has been assigned to monitor the prices of hilsha in the local markets while the Bangladesh Fisheries Development Corporation (BFDC) will keep watch on the land ports to check illegal export of hilsha to neighbouring India, a senior official of Fisheries and Livestock ministry told the FE Wednesday.
In the city markets the big-size hilsha fishes are selling at Tk 1000-1200 per piece while the medium-size ones at Tk 700-800 per piece and smaller ones at Tk 200-300 per piece.
According to a study of the central bank, some unscrupulous traders have been exporting hilsha to India at prices much lower than that prevailing in domestic markets.
The study report that was discussed in the meeting found that an exporter from Satkhira exported 6,700 kgs of hilsha at a price of $2.50 per kg to India in April 2007.
The central bank is scrutinising the issue suspecting it to be a money laundering case to take punitive action against the said exporter, the official said.
Senior officials of Bangladesh Bank, National Board of Revenue (NBR), Ministry of Commerce (MoC), Ministry of Finance (MoF) attended the meeting.
The leaders of the Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association (BFFEA), Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), officials of Department of Fisheries (DoF), coast guard, army, BDR, Navy also attended the meeting.
The government has successfully controlled the sale of 'Jhatka', resulting in the availability of big size hilsha in the markets. However, the prices are still out of reach of the fixed income group, the meeting observed.
The authorities also decided to engage patrol parties in the coastal belts to thwart smuggling of hilsha.
When contacted, president of the BFFEA Belayet Hossain said: "We have agreed with the government on this issue for the sake of local consumers."
Asked about the alleged under-invoicing by exporters he said: "The frozen foods exporters export only 2000 tonnes of hilsha but a larger quantity is being exported by the fresh fish exporters."
He said export prices of frozen hilsha are much higher than that of the chilled ones.
He claimed that due to the involvement of middleman at every stage of marketing, the domestic prices of hilsha had gone up.
Meanwhile, some exporters are irked by with the sudden imposition of ban as they have already opened letters of credit (L/Cs) to export hilsha exceeding their existing stock of 12-14 tonnes.
Hilsha exports fetches about Tk 5.0 billion a year.