West Bengal fish traders want to import 2,000 tonnes of Hilsa from BD

Business Desk :
Fish importers in West Bengal want to import 2,000 tonnes of Hilsa fish for the upcoming festival and they requested the Bangladesh government in this regard on Thursday.
“Last year, the Bangladesh government had allowed export of 4,600 tonnes of Hilsa but due to paucity of time, only around 1200 tonnes could reach us. This year we have requested them to allow export of around 2000MT but increase the time frame from one month to around 45 days so that the entire consignment could be imported,” said SA Maqsood, secretary of Fish Importer’s Association, The Hindustan Times reports.
While the catch of Hilsa along the West Bengal coast has been dwindling, the haul in Bangladesh has gone up steadily over the years because of multiple reasons. Since 2012, the Sheikh Hasina-led Bangladesh government imposed a ban on the export of Hilsa. Every year, a few thousand tonnes of Hilsa are allowed to be exported to India during this time of the year.