Sustained watch on the quality of fish coming from other States can help local business, say cage fish farmers in Kerala, who claim that often the sale of stale and cheap fish from outside hits local demand.
The call from local farmers has come at a time when cage fish farming is picking up momentum and more and more young people are being drawn to the business.
A cage farmer near Kochi, Jeeson Varghese, said that buyers are often unable to make out the quality of fish available in the market. It happens that large volumes of stale fish come into the State. These consignments are sold cheap compared to the local produce. The local farmers provide mostly live fish from their cage farms to normal outlets and even specialised outlets. Fresh fish demands a premium in the market, he added.
Shibu Joseph, another fish farmer says if the government swung into action to prevent import of poor quality fish from outside Kerala, farmers needed no support in the form of subsidy or even technology. The local fish farmers are only demanding that poor quality fish should not be allowed to be sold in the State. They said they had nothing against farmers from other States selling their catch in the market here provided it adhered to the quality standards.
Mr. Varghese said that reports of seizure of stale fish from other States in the past have coincided with the demand for local fish going up. Marketing is one of the problems facing cage framers who mostly cultivate pearl spots and sea bass. A marine scientist involved with cage fish farming in Kochi said cage farmers appear to be flourishing now after a gap created by the COVID-19 pandemic when there was a shortage of seeds. According to the scientist, there are around 6,000 cages along Kerala coast.
The scientist also said that cage farmers are making their own innovation to tide over brief crises. However, the rising price of seeds and feed is a problem. Most farmers do not rely on formula feed, which is costly and takes to buying cheaper fish to feed farmed fish. Despite these setbacks, there is a lot of enthusiasm for establishing cage fish farms, the scientist added.