Hilsa Market in Ramgati Under Syndicate Control, Prices Rise Fourfold as Fish Changes Hands

Golam Rabbani, Ramgati (Lakshmipur)

A powerful syndicate of middlemen has taken control of the market for the delicious hilsa from the Meghna River in Ramgati, Lakshmipur. After hilsa are caught by fishermen in the river, the fish have to pass through at least five stages– Arot, wholesalers and retail markets– before reaching consumers. As a result of repeated transactions, the price of fish increases nearly three to four times at the consumer level compared with the price received by fishermen.

According to a study by the Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission (BTTC), ordinary consumers are bearing the burden of rising prices at each stage, while the actual fishermen are being deprived of fair prices.
According to data from the upazila fisheries department, Ramgati has 20,000 registered fishermen and at least 10 fish landing centres along the Meghna River. During a field visit to the Alexander and Boyarchar fish landing centres, it was found that hilsa are generally sold at auctions by hali or piece rather than by weight. A 1-kilogram hilsa that fishermen sell at arots for Tk 1,200 to Tk 1,500 was found to be selling for Tk 4,000 to Tk 5,000 per kilogram in retail markets after changing hands several times.
An investigation found that taking a trawler to the river or sea requires more than Tk 200,000 in fuel and ration costs. A large number of fishermen are forced to take dadon loans from aratdars and dadon traders at high interest rates. As a result, after bringing fish from the river, they have to sell them at prices fixed by the dadon traders, leaving them no opportunity to negotiate. The entire profit goes into the pockets of the syndicate and middlemen.

Mir Hasan Mahmud Mamun, president of the Ramgati upazila unit of the Jatiya Matsyajibi Samity, and Belal Hossain Jewel, secretary of Shujan, said that unlike farmed fish, hilsa production requires no expenditure on fry, feed or maintenance– only labour and capital for nets and boats. Nevertheless, the high prices indicate that an artificial shortage of hilsa is being created. They called for easy-term bank loans to reduce fishermen’s dependence on dadon and strict monitoring by the fisheries department.

District Fisheries Officer Md. Jasim Uddin said the hilsa market has become unstable because fishermen are not catching the expected quantity of hilsa and prices are being excessively increased at the wholesale and retail levels. He said the fisheries department is working at the field level to control the situation.