A mobile fish food stall, conceived and implemented by a group of women from Vaiyavoor, near here, has received good patronage from food lovers in and around District Collectorate campus.
Enquiries reveal that these women, hailing from the families involved in lake fishing and the fish trade in and around Kancheepuram for several years, approached the Tamil Nadu State Apex Fisheries Cooperative Federation (TAFCOFED), a unit under Tamil Nadu Fisheries Department, for assistance with the venture.
Officials there helped the group of 15 women in setting up a fish stall at their hamlet and provided them a van with funds under the National Agriculture Development Programme.
The group, which works in three batches, procures varieties of inland fish and also marine fish from the market at Kancheepuram and prepares meenkuzhambu (fish curry) and deep fried fish on all working days.
The finished products are then sold to customers at the District Collectorate from 12.30 p.m. to 2. 30 p.m.
The group is able to sell around 100 plates of rice with meenkuzhambu at a rate of Rs. 40 per plate and an equal amount of deep fried fish priced between Rs. 10 and Rs. 20, depending on the size and variety of the fish. A sum of Rs. 30 lakhs was spent to set up the stall at Vaiyavoor and to purchase two vans – one each for the inland fisherfolk and marine fisherfolk, officials said.
