AGARTALA: With Durga Puja days away, fish markets across West Bengal, Tripura and Assam will go without Bangladesh’s prized Padma Hilsa for the first time since 2019, as authorities in Dhaka sit on export permits amid a growing diplomatic standoff with New Delhi.
The annual festive supply, which had served as a seasonal goodwill gesture between the two neighbours for seven consecutive years, has broken down entirely. Indian fish importers, who began petitioning the interim administration in Bangladesh in August, have formally abandoned hope of receiving any consignments before the festival begins.
“No, it will not come this year, the time has already run out,” Syed Anwar Maqsood, secretary of the Fish Importers Association, told Ukhrul Times.
Maqsood confirmed that the association had submitted early representations to Dhaka but received no green light. “We never apply for any specific quantity,” he said. “They decide what to give or not give.”
At the border checkpoints, the absence of trade is absolute. The Akhaura Integrated Check Post in Agartala and the Petrapole Land Port in West Bengal, which usually clear consignments of iced fish during the festive rush, have not seen a single delivery.
“Nothing has arrived here so far,” Agartala Integrated Check Post Manager Debasish Nandi told Ukhrul Times. “This is something only the importers and exporters can tell. From our side, there is no restriction. If importers bring it from their counterparts across the border, it clears through. But so far, we have not heard of any movement.”
Nandi added that border authorities have received no official word regarding seasonal clearances. “Often they grant permission during the Puja period, but I have no information that the Bangladesh government has issued any permits this time,” Nandi said.
The trade breakdown followed months of early representations by Indian merchants. In an official letter sent to Bangladesh Commerce Minister Khandakar Abdul Muktadir on August 12, the Fish Importers Association urged Dhaka to lift the longstanding export ban imposed in July 2012.
“Since the year 1996 we were engaged in importing Hilsha Fish from Bangladesh via Benapole LCS and Akhaura LCS,” the association wrote. “Unfortunately in July, 2012, Government of Bangladesh banned export of Hilsha fish. Since then we have been actively writing to the Government of Bangladesh for lifting the ban but to no avail.”
In another representation sent on August 27 to Bangladesh Deputy High Commissioner Md. Khaled in Kolkata, the association appealed to cross-border cultural ties.
“Aiee paarer Baangla share a very special relation with oyee paarer Baangla since the language, food and culture is almost same,” the letter stated. “The connoisseurs of fish from West Bengal, Assam and Tripura go haywire for their favorite delicacy of Poddar ilish.”
Traders also pointed out that short shipping windows of 15 to 20 days had severely curtailed previous quotas. According to trade figures submitted by the association, out of 1,200 metric tonnes permitted by Bangladesh in September 2025, only 150 metric tonnes could be exported before the deadline expired. In September 2024, only 577 metric tonnes reached India against an approved quota of 2,420 metric tonnes.
This year, export clearances never made it past Dhaka’s bureaucratic machinery. On September 9, Bangladesh’s Ministry of Commerce requested an assessment from the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock on local production and domestic market prices before approving Indian requests.
No formal assessment was delivered.
“I am not aware of this matter,” Bangladesh Fisheries and Livestock Minister Mohammad Amin Ur Rashid said on October 6 when asked about the pending export clearance.
A senior official in Bangladesh’s Commerce Ministry confirmed the deadlock. “Without the opinion of the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock, no final decision can be taken on approving or rejecting the export of Hilsa,” the official said.
The export window closed on Thursday, October 8, when Bangladesh enforced its mandatory 22-day nationwide ban on catching, transporting, storing, and selling Hilsa to protect breeding stocks during the spawning season.
The commercial impasse comes amid rising diplomatic friction between New Delhi and Dhaka. In late September, Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman skipped the BRICS summit outreach session in New Delhi despite receiving an invitation as the current BIMSTEC chair.
The ministerial distance deepened on October 4, when Bangladesh’s foreign ministry notified the BIMSTEC Secretariat of a four-member delegation that excluded its interior minister.
Consequently, Bangladesh Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed stayed away from the first BIMSTEC Home Ministers’ meeting held in New Delhi on Tuesday, October 13, chaired by Indian Home Minister Amit Shah. While home ministers from Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, and Sri Lanka attended alongside Thailand’s deputy interior minister, Dhaka sent a bureaucratic team headed by Home Ministry Senior Secretary Manzur Morshed Chowdhury.
BIMSTEC Secretary General Indra Mani Pandey confirmed the absence, stating that Bangladesh was the only member state among the seven not represented by a minister or state minister.
For wholesale markets across Kolkata, Agartala, and Guwahati, the absence of fresh supply has hit festive shoppers hard. Without genuine Padma Hilsa, prices for local river varieties and frozen consignments from Gujarat and Myanmar have climbed sharply, leaving consumers to face the festival without the seasonal staple.