Your knowledge of business is deficient, they don't sell us incurring a loss, though what we pay for your fish is lower that what you pay in your country. This smuggling to India is necessary for your hilsa traders otherwise BD markets would be flooded with the fish bringing the prices down causing tremendous loss to them. By sending a hugh chunk of their catch to India they keep the prices in BD relatively high. Then there is the issue of hoarding of the fish to make it available during festivities... What say
@bluesky ?
I know very well hisha is smuggled into India. But I was responding to your original claim that the best quality goes to India which also fetches a better price there which is pure BS.
I have posted a news from a daily about price of best quality hilsha in BD, just one hilsah of Padma river, 1.8kg is weight sold for 9900 taka. Kolkata people rarely get to see thins kind of fish, neither will they pay this kind of money for a fish. Bangladeshis happily pay that kind of money for that kind of high quality fish. The west bengalis frankly don't have much idea about what a best quality hilsha is. They get the run of the mills hilsha from BD, buy at a reasonable price and think they got the best hilsha.
I have purchased myself hisla in Kolkata, 800-900 grams in size, 1200 rupees per kilo, frozen and dipped in ice. That is the type of hilsha they have available in Kolkata. That type of hilsha is average to low quality hilsha in BD.
Highest quality is from Padma river, large size, 1.5 to 2.2kg in size, it has a rounder shape, the back is silver in color but the belly is pink. Ask these descriptions to your Bengalis if they even know this. Average hilsha is a elongated hilsha, fully silver in color and between 800 - 1200 grams in size. That's the stuff they get. They blabber about best quality coming to Kolkata because they don't know the best quality.
Even bangladeshis dont usually see the best quality male hilsa as the fisherman dont have the technology to fish deep into the water where male fish usually stay.
Yes, the small amount that is caught gets sold right in the ghat as the fishermen bring them for an exorbitant price. The people who buy it for that exorbitant price know a bamboo has been driven up their arse but they accept it with a big smile in the face because of the love for that high quality fish. Indians (bar the west bengalis) have no freaken idea what hilsha means to Bengalis, they think they know it all and start fapping.