Team Herald
MARGAO: With the shortage of fish in the market, the fishermen despite a catch of around 15000 kgs of solar prawns, failed to get an average price, as they were forced to sell them to agents for as low as Rs 80 per kg.
Sources in the fishing association informed that early Wednesday morning, two solar prawn laden canoes arrived at Velsao beach. The agents on the beach first offered them a rate of Rs 180 per kg. However, as more canoes started arriving, the rate began to drop. Mysteriously, the police arrived at the scene claiming that no transportation of the catch will be allowed. This is contrary to the ban order by the government, which only restricts the sale of fish and not transportation. Only when the Fisheries Department arrived, the matter was settled.
“On whose instructions did the police try to stop the prawns from being sold?” questioned a fisherman.
However, by then, the fishermen lost valuable time and had to sell their catch, which was around 23 tonnes, for as low as Rs 120 per kg. The next day, the agents dropped their offer price even lower to around Rs 80-90 per kg. However, the retail price of the solar prawns did not fall. However, Goans on Thursday had to pay Rs 200 to the retailers for a kg of solar prawns.
A restaurant owner for Margao purchased a basket of solar prawns (around 15 kgs) for Rs 2,000 on Wednesday evening from the fishermen at Velsao.
“We are getting the prawns for a good price but how much can we buy at one time? The government has to build cold storages so that we can get these prawns throughout the year”, he said.
