Vendors jack up fish prices for Good Friday

Fish on Good Friday. It’s a tradition that many Belizeans find hard to break … even when the prices go sky high. News Five’s Ann-Marie Williams went shopping Wednesday evening and found the capitalist system fully functioning.

Carl Staine, Fishmonger
“You noh si deh hard breeze yah? You know di licking man di tek out ya right now? Harda work and lessa fish so yo have to raise.”

Alfred “Rolling Market” Ramirez, Fisherman/Scraper
“Fish gone up right now, this da fisherman like Christmas. This da once a year.”

And once a year during the Holy week Belizeans engage in what can only be called a fish showdown at the foot of the Vernon Street bridge. They find themselves haggling to try to get around the season price gouging fishmongers. Fisherman Alfred Ramirez says higher prices for fish at this time of year cannot be avoided.

Alfred Ramirez
“If you watch dah boat bow deh so yo wah si lone small fish. Yo watch deh yo wah si lone small fish. Yo go round so yo wah si lone small fish.”

Ann-Marie Williams
“Hard to catch big ones at this time?”

Alfred Ramirez
“At this time ih hard to catch big ones because the seas rough for couple ah days now and if yo notice wah cold front di come in weh wah drop in tonight. Fisherman wah can’t go nowhere. We di tek wah licking. I just come from out deh and like ah di tell yo water di wash all over the bow.”

And the merry March wind is against the fishing trade.

Alfred Ramirez
“It’s very bad. I barely catch wah basket ah fish but thanks to the good Lord ah deh yah safe. I gone rough and come back eena the rough.”

Betty Dunn bought fish ordinarily sold at four dollars per pound at double the price.

Ann-Marie Williams
“Why not just boycott it then, not buy it for Good Friday? If you don’t eat it now nothing will happen to you. You could eat it on Tuesday; it will get cheaper on Tuesday.”

Betty Dunn, Consumer
“Yeah but yoh si everybody done use to eat fish on Good Friday, cross bun and fry fish.”

Ann-Marie Williams
“But this is you not everybody.”

Betty Dunn
“No, no, everybody. Everybody eena Belize want eat fish and bun.”

Ann-Marie Williams
“So if it goes to fifteen dollars a pound you’d still buy it because …”

Betty Dunn
“Have to buy it.”

Ann-Marie Williams
“You don’t have to.”

Betty Dunn
“But then the thing is everybody want it. You noh si the crowd weh mi deh out yah just now? Everybody mi want eat fish.”

Dunn is not the only one who keeps price gougers in business.

Violet Mendez, Consumer
“I eat fish everyday especially how it’s a long weekend and it’s my birthday so I want to eat fish so that’s why I buy it.”

Jane Ramirez, Consumer
“That da wah day weh yoh respect and they she dah fish we fi eat dah dat we wah eat. Because this dah the tradition from long time.”

This fish monger though is not as gung-ho on the idea of fish as a must-have on Good Friday.

Carl Staine
“Me, I eat pork meat, anything pan Good Friday. No matta me.”

What matters though is that consumers have no way of escaping the increase in price as scrapers too are getting in on the act, giving buyers a ranking deal.

Sharon Bennett, Scraper
“Well it’s dollar a pound. Dollar a pound for the fish and this Easter is very slow to we scrapers because the fisherman is not able to come out. Although the people are out here buy the fish, there’s hardly any fish this year.”

Ann-Marie Williams
“So the scraping raise from seventy-five cents to a dollar?”

Sharon Bennett
“Yes. This year it’s dollar a pound, when it’s coming on to Easter it’s dollar a pound because we gotta make our cheese.”

Alfred Ramirez
“When the person come buy their fish I clean and I charge wah price. Actually the price used to be fifty cents, now dah seventy-five cents cause ih gone up. Everything as you notice, everything gone up. Gas gone up, labour ratage noh di go up.”

Ann-Marie Williams for News Five.