CHENNAI: The online seafood delivery app 'Meengal' introduced by the state government in April this year is a hit among the public, attracting more than 13,000 orders so far.
As per the Tamil Nadu Fisheries Development Corporation which runs the app, 20 tons of fish were sold to customers at a value of approximately Rs 1 crore since April.
In a bid to promote fish marketing, easy access of fish during the pandemic situation and to help the fishermen, the website www.meengal.com was revamped and the Android app Meengal was launched in April. For the delivery, they had partnered with Dunzo and Bytize.
"The app was instantly a hit among the public attracting more than 10,000 downloads. We have four shops catering to the online crowd in Anna Nagar, Teynampet, Virugambakkam and Santhome. Anna Nagar attracts the most number of customers," said an official. People within a 5-km radius of these outlets can place orders, which are typically delivered within an hour.
Since April, the Anna Nagar branch sold as much as 7,721 kg of seafood, while the Teynampet branch sold more than 6,000 kg and Virugambakkam and Santhome branches nearly 3,000 kg. While more than 40 species of seafood are sold online, small prawns, seer fish, catla, mackerel and anchovies remain the best selling varieties.
Currently, the fish is procured mainly from Kasimedu fishing harbour and stored at the fish handling centre at Santhome. Inland fish are procured from TNFDC owned reservoirs like Aliyar, Amaravathy and Bhavanisagar.
"We are planning to launch the 'Meengal Procurement' app by the end of December, which would help the fishermen. We will place requests for fish on the app and registered fishermen can show interest if they have the fish we want for the desired price. We will immediately procure from them and pay on an instant basis," said the TNFDC official.
Apart from this, TNFDC is also planning to increase the stores selling through Meengal app soon. TNFDC clocks sales of around 1000 metric tons of fish every year. Across Tamil Nadu, in terms of fish marketing infrastructure, TNFDC owns 22 fish kiosks, 20 modern stalls, 15 mobile stalls, 4 mobile restaurants, one seafood restaurant and two fish handling centres at Chennai and Coimbatore.