Hilsa jumps, vegetables down

Price of Hilsa has increased by two times in a week as traders started storing the silver fish aiming to make windfall profit in the upcoming 'Pahela Baishakh' festival, the first day of the Bangla calendar, to be held on April 14, insiders said.
Prices of few summer vegetables showed a decline while meat and other fish prices remained static maintaining the higher prices.
Demand for Hilsa fish usually increases by more than twenty times during 'Pahela Baisakh' celebration which allures many traders to store the item on profiteering motive.
Hilsa prices increased by 100-120 per cent on Friday compared with a week ago, as a medium sized (700gram -800 gram) fish was sold at Tk650-750.
Small sized Hilsa were sold at Tk600-650 per kg while few retailers were seen selling Jatka at Tk350-400 per kg. Big sized (more than 900 gram) Hilsa almost disappeared from the market.
Sofiar Rahman, a fish retailer at Banalata Kitchen Market in Newmarket area said that the prices were much higher at the wholesale markets and supply was also low.
He said: "I was able to get 20 medium sized fish from Karwanbazar at Tk520 per piece which was less than Tk250 a week back."      
Abdul Kader Bhuiyan, a fish trader and vice president of Showarighat Matsha Baboshayee Samity, organisation of fish wholesalers said that the fish traders at Barisal, Bhola, Patuakhali and other Hilsa zones are stockpiling a good quantity of fish following the upcoming Baishakh festival which caused the hike.
He recognised that many traders also in the city are freezing a big volume to make huge profit on the second week of next month.  
Bangladesh Fish Traders Association president Golam Mortaza Montu said the government has imposed ban on fishing in the four sanctuaries and their adjacent areas for March-April period which has also reduced supply.
He also pointed out that a large chunk is being smuggled to the neighbouring India in lack of proper monitoring by the concerned government agencies.
However, production of Hilsa was a record 0.385 million tonnes in the last financial year (FY'14), according to the Department of Fisheries (DoF).
Prices of summer vegetables like pointed gourd, snake gourd, bitter gourd, moringa (shojna) reduced by Tk5-20 per kg in last seven days. Moringa sold at Tk70-80 per kg which was Tk90-100 per kg a week back while pointed gourd sold at Tk40-45 per kg on Friday which was Tk45-50 per kg seven days back.
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