
CHENNAI: Just 45 days after the Kasimedu fish market shifted to the new fish auction stall, the middlemen who had been fish traders for generations are slowly but surely being pushed out by fishing trawler owners.
The traders had waged a legal battle against the market shift but it shifted nevertheless after the Madras High Court dismissed their petition in June.
“We didn’t work for 16 days and fish retailers looked elsewhere for supply. They refuse to buy fish from us anymore,” says N Selva, secretary, Ice, Fish and Parcel Association at Kasimedu harbour.
As the fish auction stall is adjacent to trawler dock, trawler owners have begun auctioning their catch themselves, cutting the traders out. Local fish hawkers, watching the business die a sudden death at old fish market by the beach, have set up shop outside the fish auction stall now.
Trawlers owners only look at the long term benefits of shifting to a cleaner auction stall, such as attracting foreign importers. They ignore the damage it will cause the traditional traders who make most of their profits during the period after the fishing ban ends in Tamil Nadu.
“Once the Tamil Nadu fishing ban ends, the fishing ban begins in Kerala. It is during this period we make most of our profits by exporting the catch to Kerala,” says a trader who works for Selva. “After much difficulty we sent 140 crates of fish to Kerala on Tuesday,” he says.
With fishing resuming from August 1 after a 47-day ban in Kerala, fish traders will again find it hard to kick start their business which has been on a decline. The ice shops also complain of low business with trucks not loading fish near them anymore. “This trader-owner demarcation is only two generations old,” says Selva.
“The grandfathers of trawler owners decided to buy boats during the Kamaraj regime, while our grandfathers decided to develop contacts with retailers. While they are crorepatis now with enough wealth to sustain two more generations, we live on each month’s business,” he says.