High temperatures drive up prices at fish market in UAE

Dubai High temperatures have not only driven fish into deeper waters, but it has also driven prices up in the market, said Abdullah Al Dali, Chief of Fishermen's Association in Fujairah.

Al Dali told Gulf News on Wednesday that there is a 70 per cent increase in the price of fish as temperatures in Fujairah pass the 40 degrees Celsius mark.

"The price hike is a logical result of decreased catches by the emirate's fishermen," Al Dali explained.

Al Dali said the association is coordinating with the Fujairah Government to start a project aimed at enhancing the quantity of fish caught to meet increasing demand.

"The association is currently talking to a commercial fishing company to enhance the production of certain types of fish in the shore of the emirate. The techniques and the methods to be used for increasing fish catch will vary according to the season" he added.

Contract

Al Dali declined to give any details about the project until the signing of the contract with the company, which he did not name, but he felt that the agreement will provide a good solution for the shortage of fish during summer in the east coast and in the UAE as a whole.

"We are used to price increase in every summer, but this year we definitely have a bigger problem." He said supply does not meet current consumption level, adding that things would get worse if there is no intervention.

The fish shortage has been attributed to bad weather and the high waves on the east coast in the recent weeks. "Many fishermen are not going to sea in harsh weather conditions," he said.

Coast Guard patrols banned fishing for ten days out of the past two weeks, as a safety precaution. Al Dali said that the drop in revenues in the past two years had forced many fishermen to go into other fields.

Al Dali said the fishing association has liberated the prices in the past six weeks for the market mechanism to decide the prices.

Ahmad Al Shehi, an Emirati customer in the fish market in Dubai said fish prices have been going up everyday.