MARGAO: Margao retail fishermen have claimed an 80% slowdown in the overall sales of fish. The market has begun bleeding of business and the fishermen have requested all the people across the society to stop politicising the issue.
The SGPDA fish market wears a deserted look these days following the raid at the wholesale fish market earlier last week. The issue of formaldehyde-laced fish is still the hotly discussed issue in Goa. Though it was felt that Goans won’t be able to keep themselves away from fish, the market, however, proves otherwise with the huge plunge in sales of fish which is going to take long time to recover.
The President of the Retail Fish Vendors Association, Felix Gonsalves, while speaking on the issue, told Herald, “There is an unprecedented drop in the sales of fish here at the market, 80% drop if quantified. This is showcasing the worry that Goans are feeling while consuming fish.”
Felix further went on to appeal to all the politicians, leaders, representatives of Goa to stop the formalin issue from getting politicised. “We have no other form of livelihood other than selling fish. If we lose that we will be doomed. This request has to be treated as the one from all the fishermen community of the State,” he added.
Felix and his fellow fishermen have urged the Government to quickly set up vigilance mechanism on the fish coming from other states and immediately restart the fish import. The fishermen have already lost a lot of business due to the formalin issue and now due to the social media messages, he said, “there are several people who are being psychologically dragged away from the markets for different options.”
Messages have been making rounds urging people to go veg until Goan fish is made available. This is going to further aggravate the market slow down, said some fishermen.
A housewife was heard saying that “eating fish even after knowing that it is harmful is going to be foolishness. This very fear is preventing the people from buying fish and the situation will continue to be so for some more time.”
