First big loss in 30 years at a Chalan Beel shutki yard as puti prices halve

This producer from Boro Pangashi village in Ullapara, Sirajganj, has been making shutki (dried fish) from the freshwater fish of Chalan Beel for more than 30 years. His drying yard (chatal) starts in the first week of Kartik and runs until Chaitra; in the season 30 to 40 women work at his yard. Local fish including taki, puti and chela are cut, rubbed with salt and dried on raised racks; no chemical other than salt is used. The women workers are paid Tk 200 a day.

In 2025, because there was plenty of fish in the market, he borrowed money from a village moneylender and kept the yard running into the month of Boishakh. But prices suddenly crashed: dried large puti that had sold for Tk 700–780 a kg at Karwan Bazar only a month earlier fell to Tk 350–380; prices of medium and small shutki also dropped by almost half. In the words of the upazila fisheries officer, the market fell because exports to India stopped due to border complications. The workers at the yard fell to 12.

His main regret is that if he had a warehouse to hold the shutki, he would not have suffered such a loss — for fear of spoilage, he has to sell quickly even when prices fall. Other producers in the area also said that because there is no storage, they cannot get a fair price even though there is demand.