By Ankush Chibber, 12-Aug-2013
Wholesale fish prices in India have risen by a huge 131% over the last five years on the back of rapidly growing demand.
And, according to the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham), this growth has been damaging the domestic fishing industry.
India's appetite for fish has reached new heights thanks to a combination of rising per-capita incomes, rapid urbanisation and ever-evolving eating patterns.
“Wholesale inland fish prices rose by a whopping 200% and marine fish prices rose by about 91% from 2008-09 to 2012-13,” said DS Rawat, National Secretary General of Assocham.
However, this growing demand is fast leading to depletion and over-exploitation of fish stocks in the country. Growth of fish production declined to half from about 7% in 2008-09 to just about 3.5% during 2012-13.
The index value of fish, which is the normalized average of prices for fish during a given interval of time and indicates its trading value as a commodity, was just over 126 during 2008-09 but rose past 291 as of 2012-13 with high wastage and spoilage of fisheries. This was due to a combination of factors like falling fish catch, lack of organised retail, an ailing distribution system, post-harvest losses and rising fuel costs.
Business of fishing fast becoming unviable
“Rising fish prices have made the business financially unviable for the fishing community and all stakeholders, traders, processors and others involved in fishing-related ancillary operations,” said Rawat.
“Growing urbanisation and the advent of supermarkets has lead to the growth in fish consumption across India, but a lack of poor post-harvesting equipment, inadequate food processing technology and storage facilities is bleeding the fishing industry, and thereby significantly hampering its growth prospects,” he added.
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