Brisk sales: Dry fish market in Cuddalore.
CUDDALORE:
The fishing holiday that came into force on April 15 — and the resulting drastic fall in the arrivals of fresh fish — has come given an impetus to the dry fish trade in Cuddalore district, with prices doubling in the past few days.
The ban will be in effect till May 29, and the dry fish trade is all set to make a tidy profit during that time. The weekly market at Karamanikuppam near Nellikuppam on Mondays is now flooded with a wide variety of dry fish such as vanjiram, pulichan, ram parai, nethili, kaarai, prawns, vazhai, kola, sena, chennakuni, koduva and karapodi. Packed in raw jute, they lie in heaps in the market place awaiting buyers. P. Venkatesan, a dry fish trader, told The Hindu that the trade was doing exceptionally well in the summer months, particularly when the fishing holiday was enforced. In the absence of large arrivals by trawlers, small-time fishermen with manually operated boats provided the main supply to the trade. In the peak summer season, it takes three to four days to dry the fish and ready it for the market. Venkatesan said that the price of lower varieties of dry fish had gone up from Rs 20 to Rs 60 a kg and that of the higher varieties from Rs 65 to Rs 125 a kg. On an average 500 bags of dry fish, each weighing 80 kg, were being traded in a day, he said.Additional Director of Fisheries Department R. Ilamparithi said that during the regular season the dry fish trade provided a supplementary income to fishermen; during the fishing holiday it was the main source of income. The fishermen used traditional drying methods, with little idea about hygiene and contamination. Therefore, it was left to the consumers to properly preserve dry fish for the table.Though a solar drier had been put up by the department it was hardly used by the fishermen, because of its low and slow output, and the high cost of production).
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