Good catch sees dip in fish prices

MANGALORE: The month of October has been good for fish eaters. For the fish prices have come down by another 20% from the 30% dip in August this year, due to good catch of some varieties of fish.
Seer fish, which retailed in excess of Rs 700 throughout last year and touched Rs 1,000 per kilo in the beginning of this year, has come down to Rs 290 to Rs 310 per kilogram.Bountiful catch of mackerel has seen its price of large variety go down to Rs 100 per kilo. Earlier, each mackerel weighing 100 grams to 150 grams per kilo used to cost Rs 100 to Rs 150. Now, even fish weighing about 250 grams a piece, which counts to four to five in a kilogram, cost Rs 100 per kg. Also, white pomfrets, like seer, has seen a marked price dip at Rs 440, almost half of what it was retailing last year. Meanwhile, mackerels in local market and Panambur, has gone down to as much as Rs 30 to Rs 50 a kilo after a glut in the market. Earlier, seer fish weighing more than seven kgs retailed at Rs 1,000 per kg. Now, the large ones have vanished and smaller seer, weighing less than three kgs is priced at Rs 290 to Rs 310 per kg at Karnataka Fisheries Development Corporation (KFDC) outlet. This is almost half the rate that was quoted most of the last year.
However, pomfret, which sold at Rs 440 per kilo on Sunday, was back to Rs 750 on Monday due to fishing holiday on Sunday. Fisherman Harish Kotian, said that the prices will come down as the deep sea fishing vessels will leave on Monday and will return with catch in the evening or on Tuesday. He said that large seers are also due to arrive in the market, whose price may be 20% more than the smaller variety of seer.
Kotian said that at Panambur beach, each large mackerel was being sold at Rs 5 per piece, which meant that price per kilogram could be as low as Rs 30.