KAKINADA: Had the demonetisation been announced a month ago, aqua farmers, middle vendors and traders would have faced deep trouble as prawn trade in East Godavari district involves daily transactions worth crores of rupees. Most of the transactions are cash-based in this unorganised trade, where the price fluctuation is as frequent as that of gold and the dollar. Though the prawns cultivated in the Godavari region are being shipped to different foreign destinations in which high-end corporate companies and foreign traders are involved, purchases at the grassroots, however, are cash-based.
Since the majority of aqua farmers have already bid adieu to the trade for the season and are preparing the tanks for the next crop scheduled for January, the impact is not visible. Even as the traders are maintaining on record that all the transactions are being routed through the banks for many years, they confess to the otherwise off the record.
Konaseema and Kakinada rural are the two regions where aquaculture is predominant. The farmers get two crops between January and October and August and September are crucial for the considerable crop it yields. As per the official records, aquaculture is going on in 12,296 hectares but officials admit the actual extent is higher. The yield is anything between one lakh tonnes to one and half a lakh tonnes a year with the major chunk arriving in from the Konaseema region. The price ranges between $500 to $2,000 per tonne.
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Like the extent of cultivation, it is also difficult to come out with an exact figure of the number of farmers and traders involved, as the figures keep changing every season. There are different layers in the trade, from village to Visakhapatnam, from where a huge stock of produce is exported daily during the season. “Following the demonetisation, we are issuing cheques to our farmers and asking them to open bank accounts. The exporters remit the amount in our bank accounts against the supply,” says N. Satish, a middle-level agent from Amalapuram.
“We are taking demonetisation as an opportunity to make the entire trade more transparent. We have decided to encourage aqua farmers to open bank accounts and to replace the cash payments with cheques and online transfers,” says L. Satyanarayana, proprietor of the Kakinada-based Sairama Sea Foods and member of the Andhra Pradesh Hatcheries Association.