The prices of all sort of fish in Rajshahi city and the upazilas of the district fell abnormally for the last one week.
Hundreds of fish traders in the district, however, complained of incurring a huge loss due to a sudden fall in the price of all sort of fishes.
All the fish markets in the district are facing an acute shortage of customers for fish though the fish shops in the city are seen to full with an abundant supply of fish and the price has also dropped, most of the fish traders are seen to sit idle with various items of those fish to sell to the customers.
According to sources, for last one week a huge supply of fish being noticed in all city markets. Specially on Tuesday to Saturday, the city fish markets including the wholesale fish markets at New Market, Naodapara, Rajshahi Court and Shaheb Bazaar experienced a huge supply of local varieties of fishes. Moreover, there was also a huge supply of Hilsa, Rup Chanda and other sea-fish.
As a result of supply of so much fish in the markets, the price of all varieties of fish also dropped substantially.
Due to a sudden drop in price, many customers purchased a large quantity of fish on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. some even five to ten kilograms each to store those in the freezers. For this reason, the markets faced a shortages of customers of fish on Friday and on Saturday.
Fish traders at Shaheb Bazaar, however, blamed a sudden death of fish in the ponds due to shortages of Oxygen there.
They said, during the last one week, more than 600 metric tonnes of fish died during last week in various ponds of the city and surrounding Upazilas due to excessive day-temperature and shortages of Oxygen in those ponds.
Moreover, they said, an abundant supply of Hilsha and comparatively low price of that in the markets was also responsible for the drop in the price of local variety of fishes as well as a shortage of the customers. Due to the supply of Hilsha at a low price, most of the customers were purchasing those leaving a shortage for customers of local varieties of fish.
On Sunday, Hilsha was being sold at Taka 400 to 800 per kilogramme according to the size whereas four-day ago, it was being sold at Taka 1,000 to 1,400 per kg. The farm Pabda price has been dropped to Taka 300 per kg as against Taka 450 one week ago, the Rup Chanda is being sold at Taka 800 whereas the price was Taka 1,200 a week before. The Ruhi fish is being sold at Taka 160 as against Taka 250, the Katla is being sold at Taka 180 as against Taka 220, the price of Mrigel is being sold at Taka 150 as against Taka 200. The price of all sort of catfish like Koi, Pangas, Magur has also fallen. The Koi ( farm ) is being sold at Taka 180 as against Taka 200, the Pangas at Taka 100 as against Taka 140 and the Magur at Taka 350 as against Taka 500 last week.
The price of Shrimp, Chitol and Patashi has also fallen and being sold at Taka 600, 500 and 400 as against Taka 1,000, 500 and 800 respectively.
Fish trader Mokles at Shaheb Bazaar informed, the market condition was very bad. He opined the fish price of all varieties dropped due to an abundant supply of Hilsha in the markets. In spite of a low price, there was no sufficient customer in the market.
Fish trader Kashem at Sagarpara market informed, there was a huge sale of Hilsha fish in the markets due to low price but the selling of other varieties of fish dropped sharply even at a very low price.
Alal Hossain, a customer at Sagarpara market informed, prices of every essentials-vegetables, spices, poultry birds (chicken) have been increased abnormally in the markets in recent days but the price of varieties of fish has been fallen due to a huge supply of those in the markets.