Ice crisis hits Pirojpur fish trading

Fish traders as well as fishermen in Pirojpur Sadar upazila are facing trouble due to shortage of ice at Badura Fish Landing Centre, the only wholesale sea fish market in the district.

Fish traders said they used to buy one piece of ice for Tk 120, but the price has increased up to Tk 250 within the last fifteen days.

“As we have to spend twice as much to buy ice than before, we have to raise the price of fish,” said Monir Sheikh, a wholesale buyer at Badura market.

Even though the price of ice has increased, the size of the ice blocks has become smaller, fish traders alleged.

“Due to the ice crisis, we have to wait for two days for ice for loading our fishing trawler,” said fisherman Firoj Howlader. As a result, there is a delay in catching fish, he said, adding that they sometimes get the ice from Khulna, thereby increasing the cost.

“Sometimes we have to pay Tk 300 for buying one piece of ice,” said Amir Sikder, another fisherman, adding that they have no other alternative.

Fish traders of the wholesale market said that in the peak season of hilsa, around 5,000 pieces of ice are needed to meet the demand of the fishermen and fish traders, but the four ice mills there cannot produce more than 2,000 pieces.

Ice producers said production cost has increased due to interruption in power supply.

“Frequent load-shedding increases production cost,” said Bipul Roy, manager of Diptee and Choity Ice Mill, adding that ice buyers have to pay more due to that.

“We do not get electricity for more than 14 hours every day, so we cannot produce enough ice,” said Abdul Halim Khan, technician of an ice mill.