GUWAHATI: With consumers staying away from buying imported fish given the formalin scare, a majority of the retail fish sellers are stocking only the local variety even as the temporary ban on sale of the challani variety has been lifted in markets here.
The detection of formalin in samples of fish collected from a market here earlier this month had prompted the Assam government to impose the interim ban on the entry of stocks from outside the state.
“We have not procured the imported variety from Betkuchi ever since the ban was imposed and don’t intend to for some time as we fear that if we end up selling fish laced with formalin by default, the penalties thereafter are very harsh. So, we are sticking to the sale of local fish,” Raju Aslam, a fish seller at the Ulubari market told The Shillong Times on Saturday.
Given the short supply of fish, the demand for locally bred fish such as magur, rohu, catla (bhokuwa) and bhangon among others have risen to an extent since the ban on imported fish was imposed on July 11.
“We are buying the local fish from the wholesale market in Uzan Bazar ghat now. Rohu is selling for about Rs 200 per kg today while catla is selling above Rs 300 per kg. The profit margins are kept at a bare minimum,” Aslam said.
At the Uzan Bazar ghat, Ramprakash Sahani, a retail seller, was anticipating better sales on the coming Sunday. Like Aslam and many other retailers, he too has stopped opting for the challani variety.
“The bigger catla variety, bought at Rs 380 per kg from the wholesale market here will easily sell for over Rs 450 per kg on Sunday. Given the formalin scare, we have stopped procuring the imported fish even though it is available now, albeit in smaller quantities,” Sahani said, as he had only a couple of the bigger variety left for sale by noon.
Given that the imported variety has been banned temporarily in Shillong as well, people coming here from the pine city for short stays may also prefer taking some of the Assam bred fish home.
Visits to a few markets here revealed that consumers are willing to shell out extra money for taking home the locally available fish.
“For the time being, we are opting for the smaller local variety even as the rates have marginally increased. Today, I bought half a kilogram of bhangon fish for Rs 120 from the Uzanbazar GMC market. The same variety was available for Rs 100 for 500grams a month back,” a consumer informed this correspondent.
The prices of eggs, chicken and mutton have also risen marginally over the past two weeks, even as it could not be confirmed whether the trend had anything to do with the ban on imported fish.
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