Dried Fish Industry of Malvan

Status

PUBLISHED

Metadata

abstract

This pilot study, conducted jointly by Dakshin Foundation and the Dried Fish Matters (DFM) project, assessed the structure, supply chain and trends of the dried fish economy at Malvan, Maharashtra and its possible links with the fishmeal industry. The dried fish industry in Malvan is relatively small, with about 20-25 local traders and 8-10 traders who do not belong to the local communities – all of whom carry out the fish processing and drying themselves. These traders buy and process large volumes of fish, which is sold outside Malvan but within the region (i.e. Sindhudurg district and Goa). A separate chain exists where small-scale traders, largely women, buy fish from boats and sell it at the local market, both fresh and dried. A large diversity of fish is used for drying, the most common being mackerels, croakers and ribbonfish, with traders and retailers showing no preference for any. Fish catch in Malvan has significantly declined in the past decade, reducing the dried fish trade as well. Overfishing and prevalence of fishing practices such as LED fishing and high-speed trawling were cited as the main reasons for this decline. Dried fish trade is possibly further diminished by the development of the fishmeal industry. We found that fish for drying may be increasingly diverted to fishmeal, as the latter is less labour-intensive and generates steady profits. The future of fish drying therefore appears to be under threat, largely due to a low and unsteady supply of fish and potentially due to industries like fishmeal as well. Further research into the dried fish economy and its connection to fishmeal is needed.

series

DFM Reports

title

The Dried Fish Industry of Malvan:  Supply Chain, Economy and Relationship with the Fishmeal Industry

date

2020

author

Trisha Gupta, Paloma Chandrachud, Muralidharan M., Naveen Namboothri, and Derek Johnson

series editor

Derek Johnson

license

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/.

address

Dried Fish Matters Project Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Arts 432 Fletcher Argue Building, 15 Chancellor Circle The University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, R3T 2N2 CANADA

dried.fish.matters@umanitoba.ca

acknowledgements

This work draws on research supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

Workflow

• 2020-08: Published by Dakshin Foundation (as PDF)
• 2020-08: Retrieved by DFM and stored in Zotero library

Versions

• Zotero PDF: https://api.zotero.org/users/4955564/items/PK4ASCSH/file/view
• Version hosted by Dakshin Foundation: https://www.dakshin.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Malvan-Dried-Fish-Report-Final.pdf