The ban began on February 1 and ends on March 31. In addition to Yucatan, it is valid in Campeche, Quintana Roo and Tabasco.
(MERIDA, YUC. – TYT).- Mérida markets tenants face the grouper ban as they do every year: with a product receipt to continue selling it over the course of two months and with the expectation that the price could increase.
Currently, the kilo of this species is sold between 140 and 160 pesos in the Lucas de Gálvez market, but it could increase if, with the restriction, there is a shortage.
“Last year it was around 180 pesos per kilo, but it is not certain that it will be repeated. Everything will depend on how the sales are going,” explained Javier Caamal, who works at the “Pescadería Sosa”.
“The ban does not prohibit us from selling, so we have stored product, although in the end it is not much to cover more than a month,” they said in the “Costa Azul” local.
For this reason, the traders agreed that, due to the price of the marine product, it is better to take into account equally attractive alternatives.
“We have blonde, tilapia, mojarra, chac chi…” Caamal pointed out. Several of these species do not exceed 100 pesos per kilo. And those that do, are offered in less than 130 pesos.
In the case of stalls that sell prepared fish, the closed season does not affect them directly since they offer “a cooked meal”.
And it is that restaurateurs have the possibility of buying wholesale to ensure that they have all kinds of dishes. In this case, the cost is 130 pesos per kilogram, between the tenants of the market. In the worst case, businesses go to suppliers that have enough frozen product, even if it is sometimes more expensive.
“Even we have suddenly had to go to the companies with large freezers to complete the season and you see that they offer a kilo more expensive than here, but people buy them,” said Caamal.
A species such as grouper, classified as lean fish, can last up to six months frozen. However, there are customers who demand the freshness of “a fish of the day”. “At this time it is not something that can be given to them, especially with the ban already advanced,” said Caamal.
For now, tenants expect to pay for the month of February, waiting for their sales to increase with Lent, which is scheduled to start on March 2.
Prior to it, the Secretariat of Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture of Yucatan (Sepasy) reported that, in the grouper season, from April 2021 to January 2022, 4,500 tons of the species were totaled.
TYT Newsroom
