Might be cheaper to buy steak than fish come Lent

THE EDITOR: In a Caribbean island where one would imagine fish to be abundant and reasonably priced, we find exactly the opposite in TT.

I would not even get into comparisons with other islands and how readily and affordable it is to buy fish there but I must mention my recent experience.

I went to a fish depot/market to buy a few pounds, only to be shocked to find that the prices ranged from $20 for salmon, $35 for red fish to $45 for carite – yes, carite of the mackerel family.

If these were the prices yesterday, then you can imagine what they will be come the Lenten season. It might be cheaper to buy steak then.

I bought two small red fish that cost $112, only because I know the vendor and did not want to appear to be a cheap “Mr Scrooge.” It bothered me all the way home.

I sympathise with fish vendors, who in most cases are not fishermen but buyers. And the fishermen have expenses ranging from maintenance of their boats, fuel, difficult working hours to having to deal with pirates on the sea and the threat to life and limb.

At the end of the day if a man cannot afford to buy fish he simply cannot. So what then would be the situation for the fisherman and vendor?

My only consolation is that there is always the ever popular chicken. I can only hope it will continue to be affordable.

W DOPSON

Woodbrook