Fish from Uttara Kannada district may land in UK markets
KARWAR: Uttara Kannada district may soon start exporting fish to the United Kingdom and European Union from the next fishing season. This means, local fishermen will get good value for their catch.
Karnataka Fishermen Development Corporation Ltd (KFDC) has been constructing a marine export unit at Tadadi fishing harbour near Gokarna. The building will completed by March 2020 and the unit will start functioning from next fishing season in August 2020.
ML Doddamani, KFDC managing director, said the marine export unit was being constructed as per international standards with funds from the state, Centre and federation. Once the construction is completed, the federation will get approval from the European Union Export Standard. “With this, we can send fish to the UK as well as Germany, France and other European countries,” he added.
Once the Tadadi unit starts functioning, 25 tonnes fish can be frozen daily and 750 tonnes of frozen fish can be stored in the cold room. All together, Rs 13.5 crore is being invested at the Tadadi unit.
The district has about 140 km coastline and thousands of fishermen. Many times, though fishermen get valuable fish, they do not get a good price. There was a long-pending demand to set up an export unit in the district.
Earlier too, there was an export unit at Tadadi, but it stopped functioning. Therefore, the Union and state governments took up the construction of the unit. The previous unit was constructed in 1980.