Fish consumption receives boost in Anantapur district

Anantapur-Puttaparthi: The 50-odd ‘Fish Andhra’ outlets are successfully promoting fish products both raw and even cooked food of both local tank and sea fish imported from coastal districts of AP. Until last year the city had a couple of fish outlets which had a monopoly over fish business. Now, with more than 50 outlets dotting the city, the fish mission of the Central and state governments is being realised.

The peculiarity of the district is mutton is consumed and available only on Sundays while chicken meat was ruling the roost on the weekdays from Monday to Friday. The storming of ‘Fish Andhra’ outlets and fanning into all the mandal headquarters diverted the attention of people to some extent towards consumption of fish food. This has its effect on the chicken sales and several chicken outlets downed its shutters, downsizing the number of chicken counters in the city.

The department of Fisheries headed by fisheries director K Shantha was spreading awareness on fish consumption and was instrumental in the establishment of the ‘Fish Andhra’ counters. This is no mean achievement as she successfully built up faith in entreprenuers that fish outlets are a profitable one, given the fact that the city citizens were addicted to chicken eating. In a span of one year, she changed the food habits of people to some extent. The ‘Fish Andhra’ outlets are certainly enticing. The fish sales up to 50 tonnes per month itself is a proof that fish outlets won converts from chicken eaters camp.

To keep up the momentum, district fisheries director K Shantha told The Hans India that future proposals include ‘Fish Food Festivals.’ The message should go that fish is the best recommended cholestrol-free food, the second best is sheep and goat meat and the least recommended is the farm broiler chicken. Fish should be introduced by the government as a weekly menu in all government institutions and hostels, say NGOs and people’s organisations. District collector M Gautami is also motivating the department to fast spread the message of fish as a healthy diet compared to all other non-vegetarian foods.

According to a study, the average consumption of fish per family per month is 5 kgs. Efforts will be made to increase the same to 8.5 kgs per month. Tuna, Vanjaram, Crab, white and black Pampret along with Katla and Rohi river fish are being sold by ‘Fish Andhra’ outlets.