Consumption pattern of fish among households in Batticaloa District
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Date
2015
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Publisher
Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka
Abstract
Fisheries sector in Sri Lanka provides livelihood for more than 2.5 million coastal communities as
well as providing more than 50% of animal protein requirement of people in the country (NARA,
2012). The fact that fish is relatively cheap compared with meat, beef, mutton, poultry, and pork,
which also contains protein of high biological value tends to make it preferred to other sources o f
animal protein (Adeniyi et al., 2010). In Batticaloa District presence of a long seacoast and the mile
long lagoon provides a good fishing environment. It leads to high availability and production of both
inland and marine fish (Dist. Planning Secretariat, 2013). About 85% of people in Batticaloa District
consume fish as their major protein food (Devadawson and Jayasinghe, 2014). Therefore, this study
was designed to determine the quantity of fish consumed, expenditure on fish and preferences for
various fish varieties by households in Batticaloa District.
Methodology
Data related to frequency of fish purchases, price of different fish varieties, preference of fish varieties
and other fish purchasing details were collected from 120 respondents at 3 rural and 3 urban markets
in 6 DS Divisions in the Batticaloa District. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the
respondents and a pre tested and well-structured questionnaire was used to collect data. The data was
analyzed using SPSS Ver.22.0 software.
Result and Discussion
The data revealed that the majority of the respondents (66%) were consuming both marine and inland
fish varieties, while 24% of the respondents consume marine fish only and 10% consume inland fish
only. It was also evident from the data that about 34% of the respondents had some specific reasons
for the avoidance of certain fish types in their meal. Avoidance of marine fish varieties in fish
purchase occurs only due to the high market price compared to inland fish. In case of inland fish
avoiders, 82% of them avoid due to the unfavorable odor emanating during the cooking process, 62%
of them avoid due to polluted and unsatisfactory sanitary conditions prevalent in fishing areas and
rest (13%) avoids inland fish due to unpalatable taste.
In purchasing fish about 26% of the consumers considered only the desirable characters of fish,
around 68% considered both price of fish and fish characters equally and only 6% considered the
price of fish in purchasing decisions. Freshness of fish is the important fish character considered in
fish purchasing. Around 97% of consumers were very specific about the freshness of fish they
purchase. About 60% consumers were concerned about taste of the fish they purchase and 43% of
consumers concerned about the allergic condition of fish to their family members and a quarter of
the respondents (28%) pay attention to the appearance of the fish which include firmness of flesh,
bone content and thickness of skin.
Description
Keywords
Fish, fish Industry, Animal Sciences, Food Science, Aquaculture and Fisheries