Fish stocks drying up, lament traders selling salted seafood

PETALING JAYA: Traders are facing a shortage of raw materials to make dried or salted seafood, despite the blessing of hot weather that shortens drying times for these raw materials.

Trader Ashari Samingon, 55, said the dried fish shipments he received has been reduced by about half due to the drop in fishermen’s catch.

“For dried fish such as ikan gelama jeruk and gelama belah, it only takes about one day to dry, and as we are using a glass house to dry our products, the weather does not impact production. It has essentially been affected by the fish stocks we received,” said Ashari.

However, it seems that the demand for salted fish has also dropped after Hari Raya Aidilfitri.

“The sale of our dried fish has also dropped after the Hari Raya season by about 70% as the purchasing power has decreased a lot since then,” he said, adding that he sells his dried fish to 400 shops around the Klang Valley, namely Kuala Langat, Klang, Shah Alam, and Bangi.

For another sea product trader in Batu Kurau, Perak, Azrie Mat Fauzi, his production of preserved seafood items have increased over time due to favourable weather, in tandem with good demand.

However, he said, most of the raw materials are currently out of stock due to the weather and other contributing factors.

He said his products were usually sold to end users, as well as nearby traders, canteens, caterers and wet markets.

“During the hot weather, the production of dried seafood is easier as the products can be dried adequately with a shorter drying process.

“However, the incoming supply of (raw) fish and other seafood has reduced significantly,” he said.

Azrie added that the variety of dried fish and seafood he sold included mullet, Sagor catfish, doublespotted queenfish (talang), sepat, fourfinger threadfin, red snapper, mackerel, shrimp, squid and others.

“For anchovies, there are local anchovies from Pangkor, Langkawi, Tanjung Dawai, while imported fish are from Phuket, Thailand, and Vietnam, which we usually supply to a caterer in Saudi Arabia for umrah pilgrims.

“I hope the harvest from the seas will improve in the coming months so that we can increase our production,” he said.