BERHAMPUR: Despite demand, dry fish dealers in the coastal areas of Ganjam district are finding it difficult to reach out to prospective buyers outside the State. This has limited their business to the local market. Though the Government has contributed significantly in training the fishermen community to enhance trade by diversifying products on offer, any tangible action towards marketing the products is yet to be taken, complained M Parvati, secretary of Samudram, an organisation dedicated to the welfare of the fishermen community. Similar opinion was voiced by Mangaraj Panda, a social worker. While programmes under the Integrated Coastal Zone Management Project (ICZMP) trains people to breed high quality fishes, followed by subsequent production of dry fish, profit eludes the practitioners with no marketing aid from the Government, Panda said. The women from the community have taken upon themselves the onus of marketing the products. Rural women flocking to the urban areas with baskets of fishes for door-to-door selling is a common sight. They also frequent the weekly markets in Ganjam, apart from the Sunday market at Humma which is counted among the biggest dry fish markets of the State. The plight of fishermen has further aggravated with middlemen buying the products at a paltry price, subsequently selling them to traders at a high price. “Recently, we produced dry fish with modern technology but failed to sell the products with no marketing network. No support was available from the Government,” said Parvati. The quality dry fish prepared from sardine and ribbon fish is in huge demand in the north-eastern states, Panda said. Though large quantities of the two varieties are produced here, the fishermen fail to avail of the facility of direct selling due to the intrusion of middlemen, Panda added. “Making licences mandatory for supply of dry fish can redress the issue,” Panda suggested.
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