Mumbai: Wet season hits dry fish, takes spice out of meals

MUMBAI: These days, for Pankaj Gupte, a Malad resident, and his family and the neighbourhood eating a morning rice dish, a daily sermon before leaving for work, without applying to it a chutney of dry fish, a staple food in almost every Konkani, Malvani and Goan home, is like rigorous imprisonment. Thanks to unseasonal showers and cyclonic activity.

Dry fish, a basic spice of non-vegetarian Maharashtrian and Goan food, has almost vanished from city markets for 15 days, as extended cloudy and misty weather has led to a large stock that came from neighbouring Dahanu and other fishing villages catching fungus.
Traders like Kundan Tomare said the Mumbai market witnesses Rs 70 crore business of dry fish every year, with 10 trucks arriving every 15 days from October till May. Today, hardly any truck enters the market. Most stock comes form Dahanu, where suppliers and traders such as Tanaji Tandel and Ganesh Akre, who are also civic office-bearers in Dahanu, said they are now flushing out a huge rotten stock into the sea. “We cannot use it as fertilizer as it has fungus and worms,” they said.
Dahanu supplied four trucks of dry fish daily but it hardly manages to send one truck for the whole of Mumbai region. The dry Bombay duck, dry prawns, dry anchovies and sardines are used to make chutneys and curries in Konkani, Malvani and Goan food.
“They are the base of our meals,” said Gupte. Restaurants serving similar food are unable to offer the fish as chutney and fish-based spice boxes in several Konkani homes and restaurants have run dry, said Adarsh Shetty, a restaurateur and member of Ahar, an association of over 8,000 restaurants and bars in the city.
Rajhans Tapake, general secretary of Koli Mahasangh, said due to extended showers and recent cyclone effects, fishermen could fish only on 80 out of 105 days, from August 1. “For the first time in 75 years, almost 50% (75) days of the fishing season post-monsoon have gone dry due to heavy rain and cyclone warnings. Overall fish yield has worsened, and so dry fish. We wish the government and politicians grant us relief,” he said.
A fisherman from Dahanu, Bharat Padghare, said those into fishing and supply of dry fish stock are facing Rs 1.5-2 lakh losses this season as fishermen sailing deep into the sea are unable to get stock due to stormy weather.
“While drying the fish, it is quickly getting soiled due to heavy fog and cloudy weather,” he added. Dahanu has around 175 fishing boats.