Hyderabad: The fish trade in Andhra Pradesh is in a crisis with the ban on fish imports by North-Eastern states.
Assam, Manipur, Nagaland and Meghalaya have imposed the ban on import of fish from other states, more particularly from Andhra Pradesh, after laboratory tests detected traces of the toxic chemical formalin in some imported fish. With these states being ruled by the BJP alone or in alliance, traders and farmers in AP suspect that it is not on health grounds that their produce is banned, but it’s due to the strained relations between the Telugu Desam and BJP parties.
V. Narayana Raju, a farmer from West Godavari district says that for the last two decades fish from AP is being exported to the North-Eastern states “and we never came across use of formalin to store the fish. It is a surprise for us that suddenly almost all the states in the North-East are claiming that formalin traces are seen in the fish imported from AP.
He feels sabotage cannot be ruled out as the fish trade is one of the biggest sources of revenue for AP through taxes from transport and packing industries and also from the ice factories, and any crisis in the trade would rattle the economy of AP.
The states that have imposed the ban are all BJP ruled states. Interestingly, Mr Raju adds, Goa has also imposed a ban on fish imports though fish from AP is not exported to Goa.
He pointed out that West Bengal and Bihar are the biggest importers of fish from AP, but they have never said that formalin was found in the imported fish.
Krishna Prasad Udda-raju, president of the Fish Traders and Packers Association of AP said that cash transactions between traders and farmers have come to a standstill from the first week of July which has resulted in the crisis in the fish business, one of the big revenue sources for AP.
A. Azad, a big fish exporter to the north-eastern states from West Godavari district, said, “Every day about 50 truckloads of fish are transported to North-Eastern states and each truck load costs about Rs 10 lakh. From July 11 the trade has stalled as first Assam banned imports.”
Mr Uddaraju says that in West Godavari alone fish is farmed in more than one lakh acres. He says the traders have never used formalin while packing the fish for export and it is the retailers who lace the fish with formalin so that the fish looks fresh and also to protect it from decaying.
AP tests find no formalin on fish
The fish trade in Andhra Pradesh is in a crisis with the ban on fish imports by North-Eastern states.
Mr Prasad said farmers and traders requested the Assam state government to depute their teams to West Godavari so that they can test the fish at the packing points. A team was deputed and though the tests proved negative, the ban was not lifted by Assam.
He said he accompanied a team headed by the AP Fisheries Commissioner to conduct tests in Guwahati. No trace of formalin was found in the fish tested.
Aijaj Mohiuddin is a packing material supplier from Akividu in West Godavari district. His trade too has been affected badly by the ban. The transport industry in three districts and hundreds of packing labourers, drivers, and cleaners and ice factory workers have been rendered jobless since the ban was imposed.
