Sakhipur eel farmers area in warm water for coronavirus
Eel export from Sakhipur has come to a halt due to the outbreak of coronavirus in China, which consumes around 90 per cent of the seafood grown on the upazila in Tangail.
Eel fish worthwhile around Tk 35-40 lakh is exported a month from the upazila, said Azahar Mia, an area trader.
Sakhipur upazila has around 200 fishermen who get and offer eel to local dealers for export via organization houses based in Tongi and Dhaka.
"But no shipment was built since January 20 because of the coronavirus epidemic," Mia stated.
Sakhipur has some 5-6 traders, who purchase eel from fishermen at Tk 300-320 a kg and offer those to exporters in Tk 400 a good kg, he said.
But the exporters are actually offering only Tk 150 for every single kg, Mia explained, adding that the fishermen and dealers fear massive losses because they have a huge level of eel in stock.
"The seafood loses weight when placed for prolonged and a major part of our eel will die if shipment to China will not resume in per month."
For eel cultivation, fishermen usually borrow funds from dealers, who also take progress payments from exporters.
"Each is now struggling to repay loans," said Santosh Koch, another trader.
Eel fisherman Ratan Chandra Koch of Kalidas village in the upazila used to get eel from local normal water bodies and earn Tk 500 to Tk 700 a day by advertising those to local investors.
"I have no idea how I will buy foodstuff for my children now as the dealers have stopped acquiring eels from us."
However, as China has had the opportunity to contain the pass on of the virus further, eel export may resume before long, said Mia.
"It is a non permanent difficulty," said Mohammad Rafiqul Islam, upazila fisheries officer of Sakhipur.
"We hope the problem will improve in the days to arrive and exports will get started then."
