A Bengali New Year full course can never look complete without “Sorshe Ilish”—an unavoidable steamed dish prepared out of Hilsa in the Bong kitchen to mark the auspicious occasion of Pohela Boishakh.
For the last two years, Bengali New Year celebrations were comparatively dull due to the spike in Covid cases while on the contrary this year the markets are all light up as the situation stumbled back to normalcy. If market sources are to be believed, the demand for Hilsa is skyrocketing. All the major markets have considerable stock of the fish.
Speaking on the issue, Hilsa dealer Bhabananda Das said, “This year the demand is much higher than that of previous years. In two big markets of Agartala city—Battala and Maharajganj Bazar, I have supplied 48 tonnes of Hilsa fish.”
People in Tripura, mostly prefer to have the Hilsa netted from River Padma due to its unique taste. But, due to certain trade barriers, Tripura traders can’t import Hilsa directly from Bangladesh, which is costing an extra bit of money when the fish goes to the retail market. However, for the new year day people often think less while digging out their pockets.
“We have imported the whole fish stock from Kolkata. Kolkata dealers have direct link with international dealers and from there Hilsa is imported to Agartala. Another consignment is in transit that is supposed to reach Agartala by tonight”, Das added. The retailers from across the state have arrived at Agartala early Thursday morning to get their share of fish for the new year market tomorrow.
According to sources at Maharajganj Bazar, Hilsa in the range of 800 grams to 1.5 kg of weight is likely to be sold at Rs 1,300 to 1,500 per kg while the fishes above the weight of 2 kg to be costlier, may be above Rs 2,000 per kg tomorrow.
