Despite an abundance of fresh water lobsters produced in Narail this year, farmers, traders and sources from the district fisheries office alleged that fair price has not been ensured due to syndicate of influential businessmen outside the district.
"Lobster farmers have been held hostage here by a single company to whom we sell our produce. In the past few months, I have sent 50 maunds of lobsters in which I have sustained a loss of Tk5 lakh compared to last year's profit," said Sarjan Bepari, a trader of Bashgram fish wholesale market in Narail Sadar.
Khasruzzaman, a lobster farmer of the same area, said: "I have farmed only lobsters in the midst of the pandemic. The production is good. Price of fish feed, labourers and everything else is high. Transportation cost was high a few months ago due to the pandemic induced shutdown. But I don't understand why the lobster prices are still low."
Narail is on the fifth place in the country for production of fresh water lobsters. According to sources from the district fisheries office, last year lobster was farmed in 5,300 hectares of altogether 91 enclosures.
The fisheries office estimates that the production this year will cross last year's 690 metric tons. A total of 5,000 fish enclosure owners and 30,000 labourers are involved in farming lobsters in the district.
Everyday hundreds of maunds of lobsters are being traded at different wholesale fish markets including locally renowned Bashgram, Chachuri, Mirzapur, Tularampur and Maizpara markets.
However, farmers, wholesalers and traders,are not happy with the price they are receiving, which is why experts believe that it is an ominous sign for such a high export potential arthropod.
Shariful Islam, a trader in Bashgram market said: "After buying the lobsters from local wholesale markets we send them to Khulna and Chittagong. We have to sell those at the price fixed by the company owners. In each kg of lobsters I have been incurring a loss of Tk50, despite buying the fish at a much lower price compared to last year.”
Md Farukul Islam, a fisheries officer in Narail district, said: "There has been a decent lobster production amid the pandemic due to the easy loan for the farmers," adding that although markets in Europe are open for lobsters, the price is high due to the syndicate of the companies.
"If a system could be made that lobsters could be sold directly to the exporters then its production would rise”, opined Farukul.
