Demand and price of marine fish are continuously increasing
in our domestic and export markets. Fish marketing system in India
is rapidly changing in recent years due to the vast improvement
in handling technology, transportation and consequent market penetration.
This paper deals with the fish marketing system prevailing
in India, price structure, marketing margins of commercially
important varieties offish and the share of fishermen as well as
middlemen in consumer's rupee at selected centres of Gujarat,
Maharastra, Karnataka, Kerala, TamilNadu and Andhra Pradesh
during 1996-97 by direct observation. The fishermen's share in
consumers' rupee varied from an average of about 30 to 68% for
different varieties. Marketing costs including transportation ranged
from 6 to 13%, wholesalers from 5 to 32% and retailers from 14 to
47% of consumers' rupee for different varieties of fish. Considerable
inter-state variation in consumers preference and fishermen's
share in consumer rupee for different varieties offish has been
observed. A few suggestions for the improvement offish marketing
systems have also been given