The Shwe Padauk Fish Market in Hline Township distributes over 400,000 tonnes of freshwater and saltwater fishery products across the nation, including Yangon, the commercial city of Myanmar. Therefore, the market can create over 2,000 job opportunities.
The market receives freshwater fish and prawns as well as saltwater fishery products from the Yangon, Ayeyawady and Bago regions. The entry of fishery products is the highest between January and April. The freshwater fishery products such as Rohu, Striped catfish, Mrigal carp and so on, and over 30 livestock and natural marine products and about 100saltwater products enter the market, whereas some freshwater and saltwater products are directly transported to factories and cold storage.
“People excavate fish ponds by the end of February. If so, the inflow of freshwater will be high. Especially in summer, the fish are captured and transported to the market as a preventive measure against the impact on fish in summer. It is okay for the consumers. People competitively distribute to the Yangon market and also to countryside areas, so the fish market was alive with normal financial circulation previously. But it isn’t easy this year.
We can transport to countryside areas only 30 per cent. Today, the big-sized prawns reenter the market, and the prawns worth K32,000 get only K28,000 when we distribute in Yangon. The fish prices are also falling. However, the market and financial circulation are normal as freshwater and saltwater products are entered and distributed. The fish market is also linked with the cold storage factories, so the wholesale centres and fish farmers are convenient for proper exports. Wholesale centres and fish farmers get profits due to the market circulation despite the challenges. The Shwe Padauk Fish Market creates jobs for over 2000 workers daily,” said U Maung Naing, joint secretary 2 of the market development committee.
Wholesale centres offer K20 per viss of marine product for one labour and permit between 10,00 and over 5,000 visses. Depending on the products, the labourers can earn K10,000-K20,000 while the basic salary is over K300,000. There are about 2,000 general workers in the market daily. The market is also crowded with 250,000 buyers and sellers and about 150 trucks daily.
The market has eight buildings, 444 shops, and 120 vendor stalls. There are also 10,000 gallons of water tankers at eight market buildings, and the water is used for the cleanliness of the market. — Nyein Thu(MNA)/ KTZH
