Fish exports from Goa this year are expected to remain average as compared to 2015, according to several exporters and marine product processors. While there is still more than a month to go for the peak season to end, exporters are not counting on the remaining weeks to better their numbers as the season started on a bad note in August. According to numbers available on the Mormugao Port Trust (MPT) website, fish exports from the port rose sharply to 42,940 tonnes in 2014 from 32,804 tonnes in 2013. However, exports in 2015 dipped to 32,271 tonnes, dipping lower than 2013 figures. As the season is still on, MPT has not yet released export figures for the current year. Due to storm in high seas in August, the fish catch disappeared. However, later when the fishes reappeared, they were bigger in size which led to a better catch in the month of September-October, said Steven D’souza of Atlas Fisheries. Particularly, the catch of squid and mackerel in high seas has been more than satisfactory which has put more money in the pockets of fishermen. However, progressively the number of fish caught in the season is decreasing. Deep-sea trawling with powerful motorboats, a concept borrowed from far-east nations, has led to a steady decrease in fish numbers leading to insufficient catch. Countries such as Thailand, Malaysia etc have no fish of their own due to over-fishing and use of powerful trawlers. The same concept has been adopted in India aiming bigger profits, but eventually there would be no fishes near our coastline in a couple of years, said Narsimha Poojary of Goan Bounty, one of the several marine exporters from the state. The need of the hour is to develop a framework that works to restrict fishing on the entire Western coastline during months of breeding and monsoon. We have been advocating for a ban for many years now and are content with 8 months of production during a year. But there is no political will to work towards this direction, said Piyush Jari from Corlim Marine Exports. Goa produces about 5 percent of the fish exported from the state. Hence, exporters have to procure fishes from outside the state to meet the demand. Procurement price of fishes has also gone up from last year, so also has the price at which it is sold offshore due to rise of dollar against rupee after Trump’s election to power. Some exporters lost out on the gain as they had already fixed their consignments at pre-rise prices.
www.navhindtimes.in 2011