Dwindling fish supplies from AP jack up prices

Hyderabad: The short supply of fish from Andhra Pradesh into the biggest fish market in Hyderabad at Ramnagar has jacked up prices. Consumption of fish generally goes up during winter but the demand is exceeding supplies making the vendors hike the prices.

The main source of supply is from the Andhra region, which has come down recently. Festive season is one reason that dwindled supplies while major reason fish farmers attribute is purely logistic reasons. korramenu, which is considered a premium delicacy, was priced at Rs 350 per kg in the wholesale market was increased to anywhere between Rs 450 and Rs 500 per kg during the last six months.

Kolleru Lake, which is located between Krishna and Godavari Delta, is the biggest supplier of the rohu fish. Despite of good monsoon and ample water in the region, supplies of rohu variety to Telangana has come down. Not just rohu, but other varieties like sardines, catla and other varieties have come down compared to last two quarters. Suppliers in the Ramnagar market claim that the fish cultivators in the Andhra region are demanding higher price hence they are not importing much from the region.

While the fish farmers have a different take. “We are selling the fish at the same price here (in Andhra region) itself. We cannot burn our pockets by taking the burden of transport and other costs to send fish to Hyderabad market,” says Krishna Reddy, who operates a fish farm in Eluru, West Godavari district. He is reluctant to sell the fish to Hyderabad dealers at lower price.

Behind the hiked price of fish there are number of hidden costs like increased toll taxes, transport charges, ice and middle-men charges which at the end of the day are making fish costlier.

“Fish cultivators are in no mood to alleviate cost of the fish, so we only bring fish from Eluru and Kurnool when fish is in demand like on Sundays and some festival days,” says Prem Kumar, who owns an outlet and also an executive member of Gangaputra Sangam. “Taking the price hike and high demand of fish as an advantage, retail fish vendors increased the price by more than 40 per cent,” rues Kanaiah Lal, a customer who frequents Ramnagar market.

Acknowledging the woes of fish market, Telangana government has sanctioned Rs 11 crore to improve fish production in the State by developing 78 reservoirs and tanks across the city; and as an initial grant it has already released Rs 4 crore for repairing existing ponds. Farmers will be provided 50 per cent subsidy on the fish seed.

“The Irrigation department is ready to extend support to construct adequate number of fish ponds in Telangana,” says a government official. By the time the Telangana government efforts yield results, the fish lovers have to shell out more to fish on their plates.

By:Vaishnavi Girish