THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A ban on shrimp exports by the US has affected the earning season of traditional fishermen during the two-month trawling ban period ending on July 31. When the big trawl boats stayed away for 52 days, the traditional fishermen used to make money by catching valuable fish varieties such as shrimp. However, they complained that the price of shrimp crashed like never before.
“We had fewer fishing days due to adverse weather. We pinned hopes on the sale of shrimp during the season. However, the price of shrimp crashed from Rs 260 per kilo a year ago to just Rs 40 this season. We did not have any control over the prices as the exporter shunned our products. Several countries have reduced the price citing the US ban,” said Jackson Pollayil, state president, Kerala Swatantra Matsyathozhilali Federation (KSMTF).
The US administration had imposed a ban on Indian wild caught shrimp, alleging that the unregulated fishing activity was posing a threat to the endangered turtle species, since 2019. But the fishermen hoped that the ban would be lifted this year when the trawl boats are fitted with turtle excluder devices (TED) promoting sea turtle conservation.
But the ban continued as there was a delay in implementing the device. The fishermen blamed the fisheries department for not acting on removing an export ban on shrimp by the US. According to them, the department failed to fit the trawl boats with TEDs in a time bound manner.
The traditional fishermen also pointed out that the department failed to intervene to revamp the local market. “Matsyafed has a mega storage plant in Kochi. But they shut it down during the time of crisis. If the plant was running we could have stored the excess catch and prevented the price crash,” said KSMTF state general secretary Abdul Razik.
Meanwhile, a meeting convened by Fisheries Minister Saji Cherian on Wednesday decided to send a delegation, which will also comprise the state’s special representative in New Delhi K V Thomas, to the Centre to resolve the issue.