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Hilsa output more than double in 15 years

Khasru tells Parliament


Published : 18 Jun 2019 08:50 PM | Updated : 07 Sep 2020 03:41 AM

Hilsa production has increased by more than two and a half fold in the last fifteen years due to different steps taken by the government, which include imposing ban on catching brood hilsa and jatka (juvenile hilsa). State Minister for Fisheries and Livestock Ashraf Ali Khan Khasru came up with the information while he was speaking at the Parliament on Tuesday.

In 2017-18, the hilsa production stood at 5.17 lakh tonnes, up from 1.99 lakh tonnes in 2002-03, Ashraf Ali said while answering a query of ruling lawmaker Abdul Latif. The minister said that the market price of total of 5.17 lakh tonnes hilsa will be around Tk 20,000 crore if the price of one-kilogram hilsa was Tk 400.

The hilsa management policy of Bangladesh has become a model and India and Myanmar are following it, the minister added. He hoped that the total production of hilsa will cross 5.50 lakh tonnes in the next five years. Ashraf Ali Khan while answering another question of ruling lawmaker Manjur Hossain said that 38,571 tonnes of dry fish was produced in 2017-18 fiscal year, of which 75 per cent was sea fish. Bangladesh exported 3,357 tonnes of that dry fish and earned Tk 69 crore.

The minister said that per capita milk, meat and egg consumptions have increased since 2008-09 fiscal year, in reply to a query of another treasury bench MP Samil Uddin Ahmed Shimul. Ashraf Ali Khan said the availability of per capital milk per day was 158.19 millilitre in 2017-18 fiscal up from 43.35 millilitre of 2008-09 fiscal.