the goan I network
MARGAO
The hustle and bustle went missing at Goa’s lone wholesale fish market on Saturday with the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) tightening the screws on fish traders importing fish into the market from across the border.
A FDA team is believed to have swooped down outside the wholesale fish market in the wee hours of Saturday. But, with not a single truck being allowed to enter the State from the northern and southern border, wholesale fish traders claimed the FDA team left the market, only to later resurface near the KFC restaurant outside the Collectorate building.
While FDA officials were not available for comment, the traders claimed that the team later questioned the owner and driver of a fish truck, which had rolled in from Mumbai with the prized kingfish. Upon questioning, the truck owner claimed that the fish-laden truck was heading to the Cuncolim Industrial Estate for unloading the consignment in one of the fish processing units there.
A fish trader informed that while not a single insulated truck from across the border arrived at the wholesale fish market on Saturday, a couple of insulated vehicles were seen parked on the platform in the fish market, indicating that these vehicles were selling unsold fish of the previous day. “What was sold in the wholesale fish market by the couple of vehicles was kingfish, mackeral and sole fish which had been brought into the market from across the border late Thursday night. Not a single truck arrived in the market on Saturday,” informed a fish trader.
On the other hand, while fish trucks from across the borders could not make it to the wholesale fish market, fish netted by local fishing boats and traditional fishermen consisting of mackerals and sardines made it to the market, maintaining the fish supply in the state.
