By: Nyima Sillah
Chicken business is booming after scarcity of fish hits towns and villages around the country.
The scarcity according to many has been linked to the outbreak of mysterious skin disease in Senegal.
Fish is among the food that is widely consumed in the country. But prices on fish recently skyrocketed after the skin disease broke out in Senegal last month whereby hundreds of fishermen were infected.
Amie Nying, a chicken vendor said her business is flourishing after fish shortage hits the market in the past weeks.
“I have been into chicken business but sometimes our business is very low especially when fish supply is high in the market, these days we are also gradually making of profits compare to previous days,” she said.
Aboucarr Dampha, a poultry farmer disclosed that despite losing huge amount of money due to the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic his business is now booming faster.
He said: “I know is a hard time for the fish traders and vendors because this is a business, we all depend on to feed our family members but on the other side, shortage of fish has become a great opportunity for the poultry farmers and chicken traders in the country.”
Fatou Manneh, a consumer said: “the market has been so hard to make a perfect shopping” adding “Fish is the cheapest food anyone can buy from the market and cook nice food because is cheap and easy to cater for the family.”
According to her, for the past weeks she has been struggling on what to prepare for the family because it is affordable when it is available.
Fatou Sarr also a consumer said: “It is very disheartened waking up in the morning and find out that price of fish has extremely increased because of a virus and also increasing price of other essential products. “How can we live a good life when food is not available in the country for the poor because the rich can afford to buy?”
