Nine organisations of the country have exported about 90.5 metric tonnes of Hilsa fish to India in the last 10 days. The fish is worth about 9 lakh dollars. Before this batch of hilsa shipment, companies exported about 1,108 metric tonnes of fish to India. The government stipulated deadline on Hilsa exportation was Thursday. On 26 October, the government issued a notification extending the export deadline of hilsa to India. A statement signed by the Commerce Ministry Deputy Secretary Tania Islam said, “115 companies were allowed to export 40 tonnes each.”
But since 4 to 25 October was the main breeding season for hilsa, the acquisition, transportation, marketing and sale of hilsa fish have been prohibited all over the country. Therefore, the approved companies could not export the fish during this period. As a result, the remaining hilsa export deadline has been extended till November 5. Benapole Fisheries Quarantine Officer Mahbubur Rahman said, “The price of hilsa was fixed at $10 per kg. Till 3 October, 51 companies had exported 1,106 metric tonnes of hilsa fish.”
On 22 September, 23 metric tons of hilsa had been exported to India in 4 trucks in the first shipment through Benapole. Exporter Abdul Quddus said the government had stopped exporting hilsa since 2012 due to shortage of hilsa production in the country. But after 2019, the government has been allowing the export of hilsa to India every year.