SAMBALPUR: The Fisheries and Animal Resources Development department will set up a wholesale fish market in the city to encourage fishermen and provide them with better marketing linkage. The State Government has already sanctioned ` 2 crore for the facility.
Informing this, Deputy Director of Fisheries, Sambalpur Zone, Pabitra Kumar Behera said the facility will house a fish godown, ice plant and cold storage. This apart, proper drainage system will be developed inside the market. The district office has already identified four acres of land inside the Government fish farm located near Kamlibazaar, he added.
Spread over an area of 51 acres, the Government fish farm was established in 1958. Strategically located, the proposed site for the wholesale fish market would be convenient for both the fishermen and the traders. While the godown and ice plant will be set up in the first phase, the tender will be floated shortly, he said.
Behera said trading of about 50 quintals of fish will be made in the wholesale market daily.
Members of Fishermen’s Cooperative Societies generally sell fish to the middlemen at a lower price. However, once the wholesale market is materialised, traders will buy the fish from fishermen in open auction. The fishermen will get better price for the fish, he added.
About 4,500 fishermen of 10 cooperative societies in the district will be benefited after functioning of the market. Apart from Hirakud dam, the fishermen of the district also depend on Harihar Joar in Rairakhol and Banksal reservoir in Jamankira block of the district for their livelihood.
