The Malaysian Insight

FISHERMAN in the east coast state of Terengganu are reeling from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic as they are unable to sell their catch to wholesalers due to lockdowns.

While they are allowed to go out to sea to fish, they said market closures in big cities have forced them to sell their catch locally, leading to oversupply and a drop in the price of seafood.

Fisherman Mohd Nor Ismail, 49, said fish was easy to catch but hard to sell.

“We don’t have a problem catching the fish in the sea but the problem is, to whom do we sell?

“There are no wholesalers who want to buy it,” he said at the Seberang Marang Jetty.

The jetty is among the busiest landings for fishermen in Terengganu and where wholesalers usually gather to bid for the fresh catch.

Mohd Nor, who has been a fisherman for eight years, said most wholesalers would buy seafood to sell them in Kuala Lumpur, Johor and also for export to Singapore.

Shoty Zakaria, 56, used to earn at least RM2,000 a month but now makes less than half the amount.

The fisherman with 20 years experience said the situation had forced him to take up other jobs.

“Fish prices have gone down. Previously a kilo of tuna was around RM17, now the price has fallen to RM14.

“The price of squid has also gone down, previously it was around RM32, now it’s only RM27.

“So I’m forced to do other odd jobs to earn an income. I am doing carpentry work which I used to do during the monsoon season because we fishermen couldn’t go out to sea.”

Shoty added that the revised standard operating procedure (SOP) for fishermen, which only allowed two people in a boat, also makes their situation more difficult.

“In the past, the SOP allowed three people in a boat. We do need three people in a boat to catch a lot of fish, but now you can’t because they only allow two people,” he said.

As for wholesaler Mohamad Hafiz Ghaza, 33, the MCO has made a big impact on deep sea fish entrepreneurs because they can no longer buy fish from foreign fishermen.

“The deep sea entrepreneurs can wind-up their businesses. We used to depend a lot on outside fishermen, especially fishermen from Thailand.

“It’s really difficult for us. Because of the MCO, we cannot take marine products from them,” he said.

He said they can export fish products to other countries, but not in large quantities compared to before.

He added that market closures, such as those at Selayang market and Jurong Market in Singapore, also made it difficult for them.

“When the market is closed, we really have no place to sell fish.

“That’s why the price of fish here is now cheap because fishermen have no place to sell marine products and are forced to sell them to the local market, so the competition is very close to each other.

“Like us wholesalers, we used to have ready buyers. We used to sell our fish products to hotels but now many hotels have closed.

“If a market is closed because of Covid-19 infections, there will be a stagnation of fish and we will be forced to auction the fish at a low price,” he said

He said there are at least 10 deep sea entrepreneurs in Marang. – August 3, 2021.