Fish consumption is down by 60 percent in Punjab after Eid-ul-Azha as the financially hard-pressed people are still eating mutton/beef of sacrificial animals preserved in refrigerators and freezers since 17th November 2010.
While talking to Business Recorder here on Monday, General Secretary Anjuman-e-Tajran Machchli Mandi, Mori Gate, Sardar Azhar Hussain said that the price as well as supply of fish have plummeted near 2,000 to 2,500 kg per day against the trading of 7,000 kilograms in the month of November/December.
He added that fish sales could go up to 10,000 kg in the season in Lahore. He said fish prices are down to Rs 30 per kg as people have almost abandoned buying costly fish, as chicken meat is available at the rate of Rs 130 to Rs 135 per kg in the provincial capital.
Elaborating, Azhar said 'Rahu' fish, which was previously sold at the rate of Rs 230 per kg in the wholesale market, is now being sold at the rate of Rs 150 to Rs 180 per kg. He informed that the fish farms of Lahore, Qasur, Okara, Muzaffargarh, and Dera Ghazi Khan districts are supplying mostly Rahu to Lahore Fish Market, whereas sea fish in small quantities is being brought from Karachi by trains. Supply of rivers/canals fish is negligible, he added.
He pointed out that the supply and demand of fish drops significantly before and after Eidul-Azha every year, as vendors go to their native places to celebrate Eid with their families. Since there is not much demand of the fish in the provincial capital these days, suppliers are also withholding their produce for better days. Meanwhile, poultry prices in the city have also showed decline in the past one-month owing to less consumption and surplus production by poultry farms. Chicken meat is being sold at the rates ranging between Rs 120 and Rs 135 per kg.