Alarm Sarowar Tito, Kishoreganj :
Chepa Shutki, a semi- dried traditional fish, is one of the favorite food items in Kishoreganj as well as greater Mymensing and Sylhet.
A large part of the fishermen in the north-east of the country make their living by processing fish in the traditional way. These dried fish are used to produce special fish products called chepa.
Kishoreganj’s chapa is appreciated in Bengali community areas of many countries of the world including London and the United States. Many are also making good money by doing cheper business in the Bengali-inhabited areas of the United Kingdom and the United States.
Chappa is eaten in various ways. But the most popular is probably Chepavarta. Dried chillies or raw chillies, onions, garlic are crushed in shilpata or crushed by hand. Chapper roast is also a very popular dish.
The main ingredient in making chepa is putti shuntki. In Kishoreganj, Sunamganj ,Netrokhona, inhabited by rivers, canals, beels and haors, a large number of putti fish were caught in haors from Ashwin-Kartik to Falgun-Chaitra.
The entrails of these putti fish are taken out and dried in the sun to make shuntki. Apart from Kishoreganj, hundreds of tons of dried fruits come from the surrounding haor-inhabited districts to the big market town of Kishoreganj.
At present the areas around Kishoreganj and Haor have become famous for chepa industry. Chepa was once known as the food of the poor in Kishoreganj. The price was also low. But now that the demand for chaparrals has increased, it has become a delicacy for the aristocracy.
Kishoreganj’s big market chepa traders Selim and Tapas Chandra Barman told the New Nation that they sell huge amount of chepa in different parts of the country and in the areas where Bangladeshis live abroad.
According to the traders, each pot contains 30 to 40 kg of chepa. Depending on the type, one mana chepa is sold for 5-6 thousand to 35-40 thousand rupees. If you buy it as a kg, it will cost 250 to 600 rupees. Before Corona, they could sell 500 to 1000 manas of chepa. Apart from them, more than crores of rupees are sold from the big market of Kishoreganj district every day. As a retail, you can sell chepa for 10-15 thousand rupees per day.
Deputy Commissioner in Kishoreganj Mohammad Shamim Alam told the New Nation that a huge amount of money comes to the country’s economy from the dried fruits of Kishoreganj. For this, they are making a plan on how to save them for a long time.
