A flood of Kilimeen strains supply chain in Kerala

The flooding in of Japanese thread fin bream, or Kilimeen as it is locally called, has upset the functioning of the major fishing harbours of central and northern Kerala. The fresh fishing season after the 45 days trawling ban was kickstarted with the heavy inflow of thread fin bream as heaps of fish formed in fish landing centres like Mattanchery, Munambam and Murikkumpadam.

According Jaison Arackal, manager, Samudra Fisheries, hundreds of tonnes of Kilimeen are flooding various fishing harbours every day, a rare scene over the last few years. He told Business Standard that this was for the first time during last 15 years that such a huge catch of thread fin bream is seen.

This caused a heavy drop in the price of fish as the average wholesale price decreased to Rs 15 per kg from Rs 40 last year. Interestingly, the local retail markets are also flooded with this item and the retail price is hovering around Rs 40 a kg compared with Rs 70 last season.

Most of the mechanised boats are coming back in one or two days after fishing as they get this kind of fish in bulk quantites. Bosco, a boat worker, said the catch of Indian sardine and mackrel which are normally abundant in July-August, is very low this season. The prices of these items have been increased to Rs 40 a kg and Rs 90-100 a kg, respectively. He said this was due to the heavy monsoon and the lower temperature in the sea that attracted the fin bream to the shallow waters.

According to Jaison, the season of thread fin bream is likely go on till the first week of Septemeber and following this ribbon fish is likely to be available in plenty along the Kerala coast. The catch of thread fin is low in Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram districts, but it is plenty in Alappuzha, Ernakulam and Kozhikode districts. A major chunk of the fish is being procured by Zurmi companies in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat at very lower prices. This fish is ideal for making Zurmi, which has good export demand in countries like Japan.

Now the leading fish marketing agents in Kerala are engaged in procuring Kilimeen in large quantites for the Zurmi plants in Ratnagiri area in Maharashtra. Since there is no Zurmi plant in Kerala, a major chunk of the catch is exported to other states. On an average 5000 tonnes are being loaded from Munambam harbour alone.

The new situation also caused serious shortage of ice and trucks. Most of the ice plants in the coastal area of Ernakulam district are now working on a 24x7 basis, but are unable to supply the market demand. Heaps of fish are now kept in various fish landing centres in open space and in trucks. Fishing companies are now trying hard to get the maximum number of ice blocks from districts like Thrissur and Kollam.

KU James, a worker of a fishing company, said hundreds of kilos of fin bream were destroyed during last week because of the shortage of ice. A large number of agents had destroyed a part of their stock due to decaying condition. Also trucks are very dearer in the fish landing centres.

The fish can be exported to other state only in concealed trcuks. A truck takes at least seven days for transprting to the plants in Maharashtra. Now the companies are engaging heavy trucks of 30-40 tonnes capacity to transport the maximum qauntity in one trip.

The fish landing centres and fishing boat workers are now experiencing the difficulty of abudndance of fish rather than shortage for the last four-five weeks, which is a rare scene for the last few years.