Nellore: Export of aqua products gains momentum as govt lifts curbs

Nellore: With lockdown restrictions revoked, export of aqua products gained momentum at once in Nellore district.

Now, many companies have started exporting aqua products to other States, especially to Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Farmers are also expressing happiness that there would be no further restrictions even for consumption at hotels, restaurants and other eateries which resumed from Monday after they were closed for over two-and-a-half months.

The price of a kg of fish witnessed a rise to Rs 150 from Rs 80 during the last two weeks in the district giving a boost to the trade.

Farmers say even costly fish also are also being preferred by the consumers in markets across AP, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Farmers who had begun mixed cultivation of both shrimp and freshwater fish in the same ponds, of late, have been getting good profits.

Though they had faced some difficulty for harvesting due to a shortage of manpower, now they are getting labourers to meet the huge demand in the market.

Earlier, they failed to export aqua products to other States due to restrictions on handling them fearing the spread of the virus. Recently, soon after the ease of restrictions, farmers started getting orders from Karnataka, Telangana and other States.

Farmers in Nellore district have suffered losses during the last season due to weather changes and also due to the diseases and pests that attacked the shrimp. So, farmers have started mixed culture of raising both shrimp and fish in the same pond which now changed their fortunes.

In fact, mixed cultivation started with raising of Roopchand fish which is also called Chinese Pomfret in the ponds which normally grows up to 70 to 100 grams per month and they are now money spinners to the farmers.

There has been a good demand for the Roopchand fish in the open market. They are getting orders from Bengaluru; parts of interior Tamil Nadu and Telangana and the price has been comfortable to the farmers when compared to the last season.

"Export of aqua products from Nellore district has increased significantly from the beginning of June to other States. Even though we had tried to export them to other parts of the country there was no transportation facility," said V Ramanaiah, a farmer from TP Gudur mandal.

He also expressed happiness stating that the retail business in Nellore and other urban areas was also good, thanks to the interest being shown by the people to consume seafood during the lockdown.