Something Is Terribly Wrong ! Air flown Imported Salmon RM41 Per KG, Local Ikan Merah RM63 Per KG, Local Jenahak RM46 Per Kg.

I had another shock at the market this morning.  Things are really going haywire in the country. The kaum DNA bahalol can neither understand nor realise that things are terribly wrong. 

Local Ikan Jenahak was selling for RM46 per kg this morning.  

Local Ikan Merah was selling  for RM63 per kg !!

These are insane prices. 

I took these pictures. 

And folks, these are really dead fish. 

Not fresh at all. 

We never buy the local fish at this supermart. 

Name starts with a capital 'T' and it is a British company.

The wife and I like to grill salmon. When everyone is home during weekends we sometimes grill salmon with other stuff.  The salmon is imported and airflown from Canada, New Zealand and such places.  Salmon is always pricey - about RM40 per kg.  I recall when salmon was "only" RM25 per kg.

But today salmon was NOT the expensive fish at all. 

The local jenahak and local ikan merah were selling at RM46 and RM63 per kg respectively.

Salmon was much cheaper at RM41 per kg.

Here is a picture:

  

Something is totally messed up in the country.   

Local Ikan merah and ikan jenahak used to be in the ikan tenggiri and ikan bawal range of about RM25++ per kg.   Now they are more expensive than imported salmon.

Even in New Zealand, Canada, US and Europe salmon is a premium fish. 

It is caught, processed in super hygienic conditions and  blast frozen.

Then it is  airflown all over the world, including Malaysia. 

Yet the price of salmon is still in the RM40++ per kg range.

The price of imported salmon has held around this level for about a year (I think).

So how can our local caught ikan merah and ikan jenahak be so much more expensive than imported premium salmon? 

Here are some prices of other "common" local fish :

 Cencaru RM8.50 per kg, Kerapu RM15 per kg, 

Selar RM15 per kg, Mabong RM15 per kg.

Kembong RM13 per kg, Selar Kuning RM11 per kg

The price of seafood is certainly going to the sky.  Peninsula Malaysia is almost completely surrounded by seas and oceans, some of the richest fishing grounds in the world.  So are Sabah and Sarawak.

Why are the fish prices so high?

This is my view.

The race based restrictions on fishing permits, the quota based over regulation of deep sea trawlers, the really stupid licensing controls over fish farming and cage fish farming (sea as well as fresh water),  the so called Competition Act and all the other instruments of economic oppression, economic suppression and economic subjugation are creating massive problems for  a very important class of people called fishermen.

These are a very brave and hardy class of people who brave seas and storms to venture into the sea to catch fish. That is all they know - how to catch fish. 

But when they face so many useless restrictions then it is not profitable for them to either catch the fish or to land the fish here. 

The net result is fish becomes scarce and the prices of fish go sky high. 

In other places like Canada and New Zealand, they encourage and support their fishing industry based on economic principles. Not based on quotas and racial bias. So their fishing industries perform to their maximum efficiency. 

Hence their fishermen can focus on catching premium salmon, process the fish, blast freeze it and air freight the salmon to Malaysia where it now sells at a price cheaper than local ikan merah and ikan jenahak. 

Akhir sekali siapa miskin dulu? Melayu yang miskin dulu. Because Malay people consume fish. It will now cost more to buy ikan kembong, ikan selar and ikan merah.

At RM63 per kg, no one is going to buy Ikan Merah. 

The fishermen who caught the fish will not be able to sell the ikan merah that they catch. 

If the price went up because of some government overregulation and stupid government meddling, then the fishermen will go bankrupt when the price of ikan merah falls again. 

Because the over regulation is still there, pushing up the cost of being a fisherman. 

So when people who have little business sense or economic sense (including those who have MBAs and PhDs in Economics)  are in charge of running the country then this is what happens.

Here is what needs to be done on an urgent basis:

• Remove or really loosen up the restrictions on fishing permits.
• Abolish the quota based over regulation of deep sea trawlers.
• Remove the licensing controls over fish farming and cage fish farming (sea as well as fresh water). 
• Switch to 'compliance mode' meaning fish farmers must follow regulations only. 
•  Minimise the licensing procedures for cage farming.
• Abolish the so called  Competition Act.
• That same anti-Chinese dungu moron from Khazanah was behind this really stupid act.  

I hope the kaum DNA bahalol can understand this :

We need the fish in large quantity at the markets lah.
Then the price of fish will be more realistic.
So that our people can afford to buy the fish at  affordable prices.
RM63 per kg for ikan merah is ridiculous. 
Melayu miskin dulu, doh !  

If people cannot afford to buy fish, the price of fish will drop again.
But if the artificially high costs of catching fish are NOT ABOLISHED, then the COST OF CATCHING FISH will not decrease as much.
If COST of catching fish is HIGHER THAN SELLING PRICE, fishermen will make losses.
They will NOT go out to catch fish anymore.   
There will not be enough fish in the markets.
Prices of fish will increase again.