The government is going to launch two ready-to-cook products made from hilsa next month so that consumers can have the taste of the delicious fish round the year at an affordable price.
The Department of Fisheries (DoF) will hand over the technology shortly to a private company namely Virgo Fish and Agro Process Ltd., which is expected to roll out the products -- hilsa soup and noodles -- in January, officials said.
The products have been developed by the researchers of Bangladesh Agricultural University and Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute under the supervision of the DoF.
In 2016, under a project titled 'Enhanced Coastal Fisheries in Bangladesh (ECOFISH-BD)', the DoF had taken an initiative to produce value-added products from hilsa and after one-year of research, a professor of Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) developed the two products.
"The method of producing hilsa soup and noodles has already been finalised by BAU professor Nowsad Alam and his team," ASM Rashedul Haque, project director of ECOFISH-BD, told the FE.
They expect that the products would hit the market by the first month of next year, he added.
After developing the Hilsa soup and noodles with financial support from ECOFISH-BD, the DoF signed an MoU (memorandum of understanding) with Virgo Fish and Agro Process Ltd. to produce and market the products, he explained.
"In a recent meeting, we decided to have some investigations, including proximate composition, amino acid profile and lipid profile of the sample of soup and noodles, conducted by the Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research," he added.
The investigations would be completed by December before handing over the technology to the private company, he said.
According to the decision, the department will hold an awareness meeting with university teachers, senior citizens and representatives of all chain shops like Agora, Shwapno and Meena Bazaar on the products in the first week of January to ensure smooth marketing, Mr Haque said.
After completion of all the procedures, DoF will formally introduce the product to the mass people and then the technology would be handed over to the Virgo Fish Ltd. in the middle of January, he added.
Jamil Ahmed, executive director of Virgo Fish, said that their preparation for the production is on the final stage.
"Our workforce has already been given training and hopefully the products will be launched by the end of next month," he said.
Replying to a question, he said they are yet to assess the potentials for export of the two products.
