Thus every year, from mid-January onwards, fishermen from Kutchch in Gujarat and to Goa on the Konkan in the west and Chennai and Kolkata in the east, gear up to meet the demand for export of Chinese pomfret or kapri variety of fish to China, Singapore and Hong Kong. While the traders vaguely know it’s to supply a ‘China festival’ lasting up to first week of February, what they know for sure is that the price of the fish rises by about Rs 200 per kg during this period every year.

A wholesale fish trader from Pune’s Ganesh Peth market Vijay Pardeshi said, “The demand for the fish from Maharashtra has been there for many years. Though a variety of fish is exported from Maharashtra for the fest, Chinese pomfret accounts for a major share.”

Other cities like Kolkata and Chennai are also major exporters of this fish. When contacted, a wholesaler from Chennai, Dawood Sheikh said, “There is a huge demand for the Kapri fish from the east — mostly China, Singapore and Hong Kong. This creates a scarcity of the fish in the domestic market.”