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🇧🇩 Bangladesh /Economy & Trade

Power cuts trigger ice crisis and squeeze Bagerhat’s fish trade

From Daily Star · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • Frequent power cuts have nearly halved ice production in Bangladesh’s Bagerhat district, disrupting fish storage and distribution.
  • Daily transactions at the Signboard wholesale market have fallen from about Tk 1.8 crore to Tk 90 lakh, traders said.
  • The district fisheries officer said daily fish sales at major markets had dropped by roughly 40 percent to about 60 tonnes.

In Bagerhat, a shortage of electricity has turned ice into the biggest bottleneck in the fish trade. Ice mills are producing far less, fish is spoiling, and traders say the losses are spreading across the district.

Mohammad Mahfuzur Rahman, general manager of Bagerhat Palli Bidyut Samity, said electricity demand stood at about 100 megawatts on Friday, while the district received 14 megawatts less. Supply improved somewhat the next day, but traders and ice-mill workers said the shortage had not eased.

The demand was around 100 megawatts yesterday (Friday). We received 14 megawatts less than that. The situation is somewhat stable today.

· Mohammad Mahfuzur RahmanThe Bagerhat Palli Bidyut Samity general manager described the district’s electricity shortfall.

At Bhai Bhai Ice Mill in Kachua, manager Mahidul Islam said daily output had fallen from about 800 pieces to 500. The mill normally operates from morning until 1 a.m. Employee Ameenul Howlader said outages also destroyed work already in progress because freezing ice began to melt whenever the power failed. A piece of ice that sold for Tk 40 a month earlier now costs Tk 50.

Now, we can produce only around 500 pieces throughout the day.

· Mahidul IslamThe manager of Bhai Bhai Ice Mill described the fall in daily production.

The shortage has hit the Signboard fish wholesale market particularly hard. Mohammad Kamruzzaman said daily transactions across its 21 shops had fallen from roughly Tk 1.8 crore to Tk 90 lakh. He said traders could not always obtain enough ice even when they accepted the higher price.

Fish farmer Nur Islam said the lack of ice was causing fish to spoil, while trader Molla Iqbal Hossain warned that prolonged load-shedding could drive people out of the business. In Sharankhola, sea-going fishermen said they could now supply ice for only three trawlers instead of six.

When electricity goes out, the ice that has been freezing starts melting. When power returns, we have to start the process from the beginning.

· Ameenul HowladerAn ice-mill employee explained how repeated outages waste production time.

Before the crisis, major markets including Faltita, Barakpur and C&B Bazar handled about 100 tonnes of fish worth Tk 2.5 crore to Tk 4 crore each day, according to district fisheries officer Raj Kumar Biswas. He said current sales had fallen to about 60 tonnes.

If the load-shedding situation does not improve, the number of people involved in the fish trade will decline.

· Molla Iqbal HossainA fish trader warned about the longer-term effect on livelihoods.
About this summary

Originally published by Daily Star in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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