Species Diversity and Status of Asia’s largest Dry Fish Market

Jagiroad, located in Morigaon district of Assam is known for the Asia’s largest dry fish market. The market is currently dealing with 300 different types of dried fish product with more than 100 species of freshwater and remaining from marine water fish. Among the freshwater fishes only 10-15 species (Puntius spp, Notopterus Notopterus, Amblypharyngodon mola and Labeo spp etc and from marine sardinella, Mackeral spp and Harpodon neherus) are highly in demand in market. Freshwater dry fish species are mostly procured from West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Tripura and marine water dry fish species are received from Gujarat, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. Dried fish products are available only for wholesale and the price of the product depends on several factors like type of dried fish product, transportation cost, cost of storage etc. In the present study protein content of dried fish was found higher than the fresh fish. It was also observed that women were actively participating in dry fish market as wholesaler, business dealer and as day labour etc. The major constraints observed in dry fish market were contaminated with faecal matter, blow flies, lack of infrastructure and proper storage facility.