Pabna dried fish traders in their high noon

With the ever-growing demand for freshwater dried fish, traders of Chalan Beel and Gajner Beel areas in Pabna are now in their heydays, earning a fair amount of foreign exchange through exporting the delicacies.

According to the district fisheries office, there are 7,900 hectares of beel (wetland) and reservoirs in the district. Besides, there are small and big ponds covering 7,955 hectares of land.

Around 43,000 tonnes of dried fish worth about Tk 200 crore have been produced in the district in 2021.

The fishery office sources said dried fish are exported to countries like Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and the UAE while at the same time meeting local needs.

About 50 fish terraces have been set up at different places in Chatmohar, Faridpur and Bhangura upazilas in Pabna this year.

Now with the recession of water in the water bodies, the netting of fish has started in a festive mood, but the joy of the fishermen often ebbs away as they suffer from an inability to preserve the huge quantity of fish netted every day. Some of the fish are also sent to Dhaka and Chattogram while the rest are dried in the sun as there is no preservation facility.

In a recent visit to the area it was noticed that hundreds of fishermen and workers are busy drying fish being caught in plenty.

A large quantity of local varieties like mola, cat fish, carp, bacha, tengra, pangas, eel and the like are caught from the water bodies and dried at the terraces.

Dried fish worker Jamir Uddin of Bhangura upazila said a lot of people find work for different terraces during the dry season. Their monthly salary ranges from Tk 6,000-Tk 15,000.

During the rainy season a variety of fish turn up at the water bodies for spawning and breeding.

Some fishermen of Chatmohor said they purchase per maund of fresh fish at Tk 700 to Tk 10,000. One kilogramme of dry fish is produced from 3 kilogramme of fresh fish.

Per maund of dry fish on the basis of variety is sold at between Tk 2000 and Tk 16,000, they added.

Talking to the traders, it was known that it requires at least one month to have the fish dried up before marketing, and then they are supplied to different parts of the country for sale.

Abdur Rahman, a dried fish trader in Chatmohor, said many in the Chalan Beel area are now leading their livelihoods with the earning from dry fish business.

The district fisheries officer Abul Kalam Azad said a festive mood for producing dry fish is prevailing in Gajner Beel and Chalan Beel areas as in the previous years.

This year they have fixed the production target of dry fish at around 43,000 tonnes worth around Tk 200 crore.

If the producers can preserve the dry fish properly, they will get a good profit, he hopes.