With only a few days left for a stormy fish year to end, fish exporters on Thursday said that they anticipate a 30-40 per cent fall in the state’s marine exports in 2018-19, thanks to the formalin-in-fish controversy. Exporters said that the controversy that lasted for a good five months took a toll on all aspects of the fish trade. Besides making fish distasteful for consumption, it was very harmful for the marine product exporting industry, said a unit owner. According to exporters, hopes of making up for the shortfall in the remaining three months of 2018-19 are dim because the peak fishing season has almost ended. In 2017-18, Goa’s fish export was 50,571 tonnes, registering an increase of 17 per cent over the previous year. Corlim Marine Export Pvt Ltd’s R S Jari said that most of the exporting units in the state could hardly keep their plants open during the peak fishing months of August-December. The catch does not wait for anybody. We were running around for permits and permissions which took long to come, he said. Jari added that he lost 30 per cent of his production during the formalin controversy months. Exporter Mushtaq Ahmed of Indotech Marine, Cuncolim, said that his unit took a volume hit of about 50 per cent. We did not get raw material from upstate and could hardly function, he said. The unit exports Indian mackerel, cuttle fish and cod fish to south Asian countries and Europe, said Ahmed, adding, the production loss of about three months cannot be made up. A senior official from Marine Product Export Development Agency (MPEDA), Goa, said that exports for the current year are definitely expected to be lower, although an accurate estimation of the impact is yet to be made. The formalin-in-fish row broke out on July 12, 2018. Exporting units that re-opened on August 1 faced an acute shortage of fish with the government initially banning movement of fish trucks into the state for 15 days followed by a complete ban. According to the local fish exporting industry, about 80 per cent of the fish they process (for exports) is purchased from neigbouring states of Karnataka andMaharashtra. The government lifted the ban on movement of trucks into the state on December 12, but by then the damage was done, claimed exporters. The marine product exporting industry in the state comprises of about 10-12 units. Exporters operate for about nine months in a year and take a seasonal shutdown in the two-month fishing ban period. According to exporters, the exports are of varieties that are not consumed by residents. The trend in fish exports has been robust for the last three years, both in volume and value. In value terms, the growth was 11 per cent in 2017-18 at Rs 711.9 crore.