To study the price spread of some of the commercially important fishes, Sakthikulangara (r.ear

Quilon in Kerala), the biggest landing centre in our country was selected as primary market and Kottarakkara,

Punalur, Kozhencherry and Chengannoor (all ia Southern Kerala) as consumer markets. Data

on fish prices at the landing centre and at the consumu markets and expenditure on transportation,

handling and other marketing aspects have been collected during July to September 1981. Details of

classification of purchasers, pecentage distribution of the quantity lifted by them and the marketing

channels have been studied 

Panikkar, K K P

Sathiadhas, R

CMFRI Digital Repository

Fishermen's Share in Consumer's One Rupee - A Case Study K. K. P. PANIKKAR and R . SATHIADHAS Central Marine Fi~heries Research Institute, Cochin-682 018 To study the price spread of f>ome of the commercially important fishes, Sakthikulangara (r.ear Quilon in Kerala), the biggest landing centre in our country was selected as primary market and Kottara-kkara, Punalur, Kozhencherry and Chengannoor (all ia Southern Kerala) as consumer markets. Data on fish prices at the landing centre and at the consumu markets and expenditure on transportation, handling and other marketing aspects have been collected. d.uring July to September 1981. Details of classification of pUT'Cha;s~rs. pucontsge di tribution of the qua ntity iifted by them and the mar1$:eting channels htl'l_ been s~ud!ed . Th.e study l evcaled thn.t the t: t ile:rs margin r"u1.ged from 11 10 25 percent and the wholesalers margin 15 to 37 per cent of the consumer price. Marketing expenses which consti-tute mainly transportation and handling charges ranged 6 to 7 per cent. The analysis indicated that fishermen's share var.ied from 31 to 68 per cent. The recent price escalation of prawns and other luality fishes that resulted from the increased export lemand coupled with the rising internal demand due o the overall increase in money income encouraged our ishing industry for the speedy expansion of mechanisa-ion and the motorisation of a number of country craft. -fence fishing in our country is slowly transforming from ubsistance to cash crop operation. Technical advances end to increase the capital requirements which in turn nake the fishers more conscious about their fishing sur-llus which depends mainly on the trends in input and mtput market. Thus the studies in the trends of fish narketing are IJighly essential for the formulation of a narketing policy to assure a reasomable price to pro-Iucers without impending the interest of the consumers. rhe purpose of this paper is to estimate the share of ishermen in consumer's one rupee for some of the com-nercially important varieties of fishes landed at Sakthi-cuI angara. Various components of the marketing mar-~ins were also studied bringing out the level of whole-:alers and retailers profit. The study, though confined o one landing centre, a limited number of interior narkets and only few varieties of fish, indicated how 'ar the middlemen are benefitted in the fishery trade, :he extent of marketing expenditure and the fishermens' Ihare in consumenrs' price. The study would be lelpful to identify the usual fish marketing channels, :0 analyse the structure of the marketing costs and to lssess the efficiency of the present marketing system. Materials and Methods For the purpose of this study price data were colle-?ted both from producer market (SakthikuJangara) and :rom the consumer markets (Chenganoor, Kozhencherry, ~otta~akara and Punalur) for some of the commer-~lally Important fishes like seer fish, lizard fish, thread-lin bream, cat fish and flat fi8h. Every care was taken to collect the price of each variety at both ends of the marketing channel for the same consignment. Data on components of marketing costs were obtained from traders and other middlemen. Data were also collected on the package charge includihg cost of basket and ice used and loading charges prevailing at Sakthikulangara. The information on transportation charges has been collected by contacting the truck owners or drivers. Qr tWs study a commodity approach is adopted. fnT each variety of fish under th study, prices of mal'''' keting inpu at val'ious stages ~re studied following the channel ftom the producing market to cons~iug m<1rket. A market 'chamlelis sim.ply the path Of'f commodity frOin tho producer t th- conSum.er. For example the fi h after the landing pa.<;. through a whole~ saler and a retailer before its ultimata destination-'lhe consumer or in certain ca, 'c ' wholesal r (or cOlU.Dlission agent) that is, processor-wholesaler-retailer-consumer. In our country, bulk of the domestic consumption is only in the raw form without undergoing any sort of processing. Hence, the usual market channel is pro-ducer-wholesaler-retailer-consumer. Before the collection of marketing data, some varieties of fish were selected for the study of price spread. After tracing the marketing channels, each consuming market was selected for each variety of fish. Prices of these varieties were collected at three stages, namelt, price received by tho fishe.rmen at the tanding ccntro (prjducing ma kef), th~ price received by the whole'aiet atcon lltning market and prioo paid by the c -nsumer. The marketing c'()sts !;uoh as transportation costs, -packa-ghig charges find loading and unloading ('barges were collected. At Sakthikulangara fi$h is lauded and mar~ keted evel'j' day moming and evening excep sunday!;. The mOl'niut',t lEUl.di 19s arc mostly from g;U n~Uel's and tho , velling landings are ftom. trawlers. There is a p r-FrSHE manen are res the rno men. and th by thel larly fc Middle, 11 called involve commil wholes middle: port it Their i: incurre their e Comm cessor.$ owners the mi~ urable wholes: quick, price f( ually a Buyers Agents Whole~ Comm' Cycle·~ Headlq Others Total FISHERMEN'S SHARE IN CONSUMER PRICE manent set of acutioneers at the landing centre . They are responsible not only for bidding but also for getting the money from the purchaser and paying to the fi sher-men. The study has gone into the details of purchasers and the percentage distribution of quantity purchased by them. Data were collected on alternate days regu-larly for about a month during July-August, 1981. Middlemen in fish marketing The people engaged in marketing are generally called middlemen. In fish marketing the middlemen involved can be classified as merchant middlemen, commission agents, brokers and auctioneers. The wholesalers and retailers are categorised as merchant middlemen. They take the ownership of the fish, trans-port it and sometimes storage and dispose it for a gain. Their intention is to cover the marketing costs whatever incurred by them and in addition, to make a profit for their effort and also for the risk taken by them. Commission agents act as representatives for either pro-cessors or wholesale dealers. They do not take the ownership of the fish. Brokers or commission men are the middlemen who brings the seller and buyer in favo-urable terms of exchange. In certain consumer market, wholesalers take the services of such midd.lemen for . quick disposal of their truck load of fish at a reasonable price for which these middlemen get a commission us-ually a percentage of the total value realised. Buyers ill Sakthikulangara landing centre On an average per day about 2,500 people assemble here to purchase fish (July~August, 1981). These buyers constitute agents of freezing plants or procesf>ing units, wholesale traders, commission agents, cycle vendors, head load vendors and others. The number of buyers in each of these categories and the percentage of average they lifted per day are given below: Category Agents of freezing pJants Wholesale traders Commission ' agents Cycle · vendors Headload vendorf> Others Total Average number per day 60 150. 90' 500 900 800 2,500 Quantity purchased % 35 24 14 10 12 5 lOO Since the number of buyers are very high, the fish market here is a competitive one. Hence, as compared to many other small landing centres, at Sakthikulangara, despite the high market arrival, fishermen get better price. Marketing margin ,0" pdce spread Marketing margin is the difference between the price paid by the consumer and the price received by the 7Q:5 fishermen. The components of marketing margins for the fresh fish (without processing) are the wholesaler's margin, the expenses incured by the wholesaler for packa-ging, load.ing and tramporting to interior market and the reta.ilers margin. In certain cases the middlemen at landing centre and at consumer market may also enter into this chain and in such cases marketing margin includes their commission also. At Sakthikulan:gara, trucks are loaded with fish either in single lot on ice bed in equal propor tion or in packed baskets. The basket loads generally are f>old to cycle vendors or head load vendors. One basket usually contains 60 kg of fish. If the fish is not packed in baskets for quick disposal, it has to be sold out in one lot for which the wholesaler has to seek the services of some middlemen on commis-sion basis or sell to a wholesaler in the consumer market. The break of packaging charge of one basket of fish containing 60 kg is given below: Rs .. Basket 10 Coconut leaves 5 Coir I Ice 8 Packaging and loading 15 Total 39 The transpor ·at;ion cO ts depend on he distance be cov red and 'he vehicle capacity. The nearest mark.et selected, for th,e- study is Kottarakkant (35 Ion) and the farthest is Kozh nen ny (80 m). Howe-vel tbt=. !)ampl ~ tr uck load s to b th these marke ts from a ktbi-kutangara. incurred almost the s,lme[:ransportatioJl: C.Qi, t pel' kg of fish. It was observed hat tJlose trucks destined to nearest market.s did n t' wrut tn mIl ke the truck full with the intention of reaching the consumer market as early as possible, so that the high transporta-tion cost per kg of fish could be compensated by a better price due to early arrival. Location principles of economics tell u' that prices Nil! b lowest at. the: point of highest p 'oduc ion con cntration and will incrcaso In magnitude by the ext nt of tratlp rlation cost as one m yes a\~ay from the centre of production. However. duringtIte IJryey it was .ob erved that at Q\lilon markilt 'Whiol1 j about Ian from the. 'aktl)ikuJangara 'prices of ce.rtaill vari-tie of iish we.re low on certain days compared to llw.t at Sakthikula~gara. Ther- are nlain./y tW( factors WhiC~l are responsible for tbj aspect. One j . that some Q tlte arrival. at Quilon market me from the minor landing centres where only traditional f:i lIor~ moll. opetaL Price. of the e arrival B:,re cortlpafft-tiveJy Jow. The other is tliat even th arrival' from !lkthiku1angar are ,1l1osHy brought by women yendors .. wh s con~'gumenls con ist'S f fish picked up from ho ts by small bOoys . and verY old fish.ermon tho price of which i far below the maTke price. Sine ' .uch ~spect create pI()bl(;lm.~ in the ,estimation <)f JilMkeLing 706 margin it is highly essential to identify the producing centre of the market arrivals in the consumer market. However, such identification is a difficult task. Ano-ther difficulty faced in the study of price spread is the wide fluctuation in fish prices. Even the daily varia-tions are very high. Since the price mainly depends on supply, the unsteady and uneven supply causes this fluctuation. Results and Discussion The average price paid by the consumer for selected varieties of fish (in fresh condition), the price received by the fishermen and the components of marketing margins are shown in Table 1. 'f' hte 1. Marketing margins Consumer market Punalur Name of the fish Seer fish Lizard fish Price at the producing centre (R~.) (Saktikulangara) 15.00 2.50 Price at consumer Market (R s.) 22.00 8.00 Fishermen's share % in consumer's one rupee (paise) 68 .3) Wholesaler's margin (paise) 1.5 37 Retailer's margin (paise) 11 2S Middlemen's commission (paise) Marketing expenditure (paise) 6, 7 A Gen froDl Table I nslul11nen'. shat in con-s.Unlet's one rupee fot seer :fish is 60paiso. Among 'th 5 arieties seJected. for the tudy, theave:tage con~ sumer prioe per k,g of ~ee[ .fish was h.igbet-being .R ., 22 a~ llgi\-inst the prjce range of Rs. 8 to l2 of a11 other vade-iti~.. Lizard fish and threadfin bream are th two vlldeties ' old <l.t tile ct):nUllle~ market at tbo lQwest prj~ 01 R_ , 8 per kg. Fot thes" vl'rietie . th.e pro-ltU.C:br (lisheI111en) received only tls. 250 p.er kg, Thus the flsherm.en's Sin,ar or tIles vari"tles in consumer's 011C l'UIlcO in 3lpa:is.e. For cat fish and flat fish which were better priced ban li~rd' l1sh nnd threadfin bream) fish rmen's share as 61 paise and 41 paise respectively. Wholesaler's margin ranged from 15 paise for seer fish to 37 paise K. K. P. PANIKKAR AND R. SATHIADHAS tiofl, s.in Ii) the markets 'e lected are within the distance of 35 to 100 kID.. For all varieties, wholesaler got a better margin than the retailer. The study indicates that the fishermen get a better share for those varieties having high consumer preference. Higher the con-sumer price, higher will be the fishermen's share in it. In other words for quality fishes fishermen get a better share than for cheaper varieties. For lizard fish wholesalers' margin was more than the fishermen's share in the consumer's rupee. For threadfin-bream fishermen (producer) and the wholeSAler h~rcd equally. To ensure a reasonable price to fishermen for their landings, adequate marketing infrastructure facilities Kottarakkara Kozhencherry Chengannur Threadfin bream Cat fish f lat 11 II 2.50 5.50 5.00 8.00 9.00 12.00 31 61 41 31 19 27 19 ]4 61 12.5 8.5 6.5 6 ld ~ t lizard .fi h. Retailer margin wa:i I west fo·r c ~ flit (11 paie). and hig!~est for liz<Jrdfish (25 pa··!je), Marketing costs which include packaging. transporta-tion nnd. loading and unloading charge, for aU vade· ties .ranging from 6 tj) 7 pai 0 did not show much yaria-shoul.d be developed at least ut major land'us: centre. A fast a,ad efficienttransportati<:n syst 11\ js I'e9uire~ fo r ttl Improv·em\lnt of marketmg of fish which 1-B highly perishable commodity. hi can 1elp subs tan-tial"y to aVoid poila.ge, to enable the consumer 0 g1,l& the fish in better condition to channeHse the distri-butiOl:'l "0 i,nterior place Imd consequcntjy ensure lter price and returns a the iishermen. A pcice uppon pol.icy may be fonnula.ted for fi.Xjng it price for all commercially important Varieties of fish. Bstf!.bU hment f It fisbe.ry corporation' in the line of q b 'P FISHERMEN'S SHARE IN CONSUMER PRICE Ot10'fi CorporR lion or J ute CoI'POfftti.OI1 is highly c' {Rid' 1 to purcltas~ fi 1 whenevCT there i . a gJut in the marke or when the prices 'ddft below lhe. Jevel of .flOQr Etice-s. The snpport priCe ,call be. mMe elf;ecti:ve only If there is such It purchasirlg;tgency with ;lde~ qua't;e; t<itage ' faciJiti¢8~ Thi agency 'hontd build a huffaf stock which a.cl aM a cu,o;ltio,ri fef tbe support pric Md r-educe the wide -fluctuation. in fish p('ice • ·707 Tbe .It\tthQl'S ~ro ndebted l:O Dr. ~~G. SilIiS,. Dl~i:ctor. Cen. 1.1'<1.1 Manno .Fish.eries R.esearch [n~tlllI tI,l f!,lr l1is- eJ1COW'l\glll'net!! and are grateful to Shri T. Jacob, Scientist, CMFRI for his suggestions and guidance in the preparation of this paper. They are also thankful to Shri Joseph Andrews and Shri S.B. Chandrangathan of CMFRI for their help in the collection of data. 

Fishermen's share in consumer's one Rupee – A case study

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Fishermen's share in consumer's one Rupee – A case study

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