Ornamental Fishes in Kerela Receives Boost by KAVIL

With the efforts of Kerala Aqua Ventures International Limited (KAVIL), an enterprise under the Department of Fisheries, over 500 start-ups in the ornamental fisheries industry are on a path of recovery after suffering severe losses as a result of the Covid-19 lockdown.

The organization assisted hundreds of families in maintaining their way of life and increasing their income through a variety of initiatives including buyer-seller meetings, start-up training, and efficient marketing methods.

The weekly buyer-seller meeting in particular has been helpful in optimizing market channels and establishing connections between wholesale dealers in the industry from around the nation and ornamental fish producers in the State. "During the last two years, the event has brought in over 72 lakh rupees in revenue. With the goal of making the State the nation's center for ornamental fisheries by 2025, we are taking steps to entice wholesale industry titans to KAVIL, according to M.S. Saju, managing director of KAVIL and joint director of the Department of Fisheries.

To further increase sales of ornamental fish, a newly designed website (www.kavil.in) with an e-commerce feature has been developed. KAVIL provided in-depth training that sparked several start-ups in the industry. By bypassing middlemen, they generate high-quality ornamental varieties that are distributed to specific buyers, guaranteeing farmers a fair price.

"The development of a very promising sector in Kerala was hampered by the lack of large-scale production for reliable supply to domestic and international markets and effective marketing tactics." According to Mini Sekharan, marketing consultant for KAVIL and associate professor at the School of Industrial Fisheries at Cochin University of Science and Technology, India has a sizable domestic market that can be effectively exploited with improved production and marketing.

On March 24 and 25, KAVIL will host an advanced training program in large-scale ornamental fish farming. The training sessions will be led by international professionals in the industry like Kapila Tissera from Sri Lanka and Sriram Hatwalne from Mumbai.