3 consignments of hilsa reach state

Kolkata, January 9 After a six-month ban, three consignments of hilsa from Bangladesh arrived at the Indo-Bangla Petrapol border this morning. Three trucks carrying a total of 71 quintals of hilsa were cleared at the border before making their way to the Howrah wholesale market.

The Bangladesh government had imposed a ban on the export of hilsa on July 4 last year. The ban was finally removed after a series of meetings between the Bangladesh government, the state government and the Indian importers. Even Union external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee intervened to see that people on this side of the border were not deprived of a taste of hilsa.

“We held meetings in Dhaka asking the Bangladesh government for lifting the ban. A decision to remove the ban on export was taken in the third week of December,” said Atul Das, president of the hilsa Fish Importers’ Association.

The trucks were loaded from Patuakhali, Barishal and Chandpur in Bangladesh. The consignments contain fish weighing from 800 gram to one kilogram. The hilsa are sold at a premium at the Kolkata market and fetch anything between Rs 350 to Rs 400 per kilogram.