The rising seafood prices, particularly of top varieties such as silver pomfret, seer fish and crabs, in Vizag region have left the seafood lovers a worried lot. Even before the annual deep-sea fishing ban began, the seafood turned dearer and ironically, the prices of less-popular varieties of sea fish have also increased. The traders cite low catch of fish, prawns and crabs as the reason why the seafood lovers have to cough up more.
Seafood lovers say popular varieties such as silver pomfret or white pomfret (known as chanduva in local parlance) which are a species of butterfish and seer fish (konam in Telugu) have turned dearer as the fish (big size) was sold at 1,200 to 1,400 per kg on Sunday in the retails markets. The seer fish costs 800 to 1,000 per kg.
Forget about popular fish varieties, the price of crabs has increased by over 30 per cent in the retail markets. The mud crabs were sold at 700 per kg while marine crabs were priced at 320 per kg on Sunday. “The availability of crabs in the markets is very low,” said Bhagat DN, a seafood lover in Vizag city. The price of good quality prawns is above 350 per kg, he added. The owners of restaurants in city are paying more to get popular varieties of fish to serve their customers. “Though we managed to get fish and prawns, it is now very difficult to get sufficient stock of crabs to serve the customers,” said owners of a few restaurants.
Poor catch of popular varieties and high diesel prices have led over 70 per cent of the 700-odd mechanised fishing boats in the Vizag region to remain anchored. “The prices of seafood will further increase in the coming days as the annual deep-sea fishing ban will begin from the second week of April,” said M Ramu, owner of a mechanised fishing boat.
President of Dolphin Boat Operators’ Welfare Association, Ch Satyanarayana Murthy, said a fishing trip costs at least 4 lakh, higher by a quarter when compared to the previous year.