Slow fish sales

Fish vendors at the Berinda Cox Fish Market in Oistins say they are experiencing slow sales at present.

However, most vendors who spoke to The Barbados Advocate this week said they are hopeful business will pick up as the long Easter weekend approaches.

One vendor who preferred to be called Wellington was one who shared this perspective. He said he anticipates a last-minute rush in days to come.

“Right now, it is not as bright, just waiting. You know how it is, typically Bajans [like] the last-minute rush.”

Similar sentiments were shared by Romario, who said that by “maybe the end of this week” or at “the beginning of next week” more people would be in the Market purchasing their favourites to enjoy from Good Friday to Easter Monday. He added that dolphin currently is a quick seller.

Fellow vendor, Neil Carrington, also spoke about the slowness of fish sales at this point. He said in years gone by the Market would have been busy leading up to the Easter week.

“Once you see Easter week coming up, the first two or three weeks around here would be full of people buying fish, but now you can see how it is,” he shared, while taking a quick look around.

He attributed the decline in the number of the people coming to the Market to purchase fish to recent job cuts.

“A lot of people get send home, people aren’t working and the money is not there like one time. People [who] normally would come and buy a whole dolphin are now coming and buying two pounds or a little piece. It is not like one-time man and it getting tighter and tighter every day.”

He however said that during the peak months of the 2018-2019 tourist season, there were lots visitors in the facility purchasing fish.

“When the tourist season was in the other day, they had good people here. Sales were good and everybody was doing business, but since the season slow down everything gone back to normal.”