Financial Times

No more 3 am shopping at St. John’s Fish Market
Sri Lanka’s biggest fish trading post moving to Peliyagoda
By Quintus Perera
The St. John’s Fish Market, the biggest fish trading centre in Sri Lanka, comes alive in Pettah in the early hours of the morning when most residents in Colombo are fast asleep!

The marketplace is buzzing with activity as traders, fish mudalalis and consumers rub shoulders against each other to get the best price for fish. According to some vendors this key trading post has been in existence for well over 100 years.

That is to change soon, heralding the end of an important era in Colombo when this giant fish complex shifts to a more, modern setting at Peliyagoda on the northern outskirts of the capital.

Just like everything else in the past, Colombo has been a focal point of distribution for various produce like rice, vegetable, tea, rubber, coconut, fish, etc to the rest of the country. But as land gets scarce and the city becomes congested, the urgency to shift government offices and other trading complexes is growing.

However, traders at the fish market are seriously concerned over the move to shift to Peliyagoda as the location would be alien to them and could cause a destabilising effect and curtail their business.

The St. John’s Fish Market was a small town with about 100 houses and fish sales being carried out until the 1970’s when it was demolished during the Non-Aligned conference and temporarily shifted to Keselwatte. However, President Ranasinghe Premadasa as promised constructed a larger building at the same location.

The Sunday Times visited the fish market place at 3 am on Thursday to assess the views of buyers, sellers and other concerned on the shift to Peliyagoda. There were buyers, sellers, coolies carrying heavy loads of fish on their head, through heavily congested passages, brushing and jostling against each other.
Everyone – including consumers -- must move fast at the crowded complex and if any one slows down, he would be shouted at in “choice marketplace” language.

“Ho, ho, peththakata weyan yakko” (Ho,ho, you devil get to a side), shouts a basket-carrying trader. If the person is slow in moving aside he would be pushed to a side and the fish carrier would forge through with his heavy load in his head.

R. P. Susath Jayasantha from Colombo said “I have been selling fish for the last 20 years. Earlier there were good facilities, toilets in working condition, water etc. Today most of the toilets are broken and those which are in use are stinking. The entire market has become a hell-hole, with huge holes on the roads and inside the premises with these holes filled with dirty water and fish-blood, people are forced to walk through.”

But Jayashantha said this was their home and didn’t want to move out.
Kirthie Perera, whose family has been involved in the fish trade for decades, said “I am here almost for the last 40 years, beginning my trade here at the age of 16. My father died in 1952 and after that my mother got some others to run the business here, but when I was just 16 years, I started the job”.
Perera said this location was the most ideal place in the country for fish distribution. “The new location is completely out of the way. Those who come to buy fish here also hop into the nearby vegetable market and take the bus just across the road. If the fish market is in Peliyagoda in addition to the other inconveniences, they would have to break their journey in Colombo and take another bus to Peliyagoda.”

The market deals with a turnover of around Rs 50 million in a matter of three to four hours. The fish comes from all across the country -- Jaffna, Mannar, Galle, Matara, Kalpitiya, Anamaduwa, Kalmunai, Trincomalee and Mullaitivu, etc.

All types of buyers come here from various parts of the country. They come in lorries, vans, cars, motorcycles, bicycles and public transport and find the place very convenient.

There is better organisation of the market, now than before. There is a Wholesale Fish Traders Association while loading and unloading fish from lorries are done in an organized manner for a reasonable fee. If any fish is lost in transit, the losses are covered, according to Association President N.J.A. Jokim Perera (Jokim Mallie). There is no extortion or other disruption which could however happen at a new location.

M.D. N. Sanjeewa who has been selling fish here for the last five years said that 95 percent of the traders are opposed to the shift. Anthony Joseph, another fish seller who has been there for the last 20 year too held the same view. He urged the authorities to modernize the place so that it could be a pleasant place for buyers and sellers.

W.Init from Moratuwa who has been purchasing fish for the last 8 years said that she would not be able to buy and sell fish if the market is shifted to Peliyagoda as transport would be a very big problem.

R. P. Premasiri from Trincomalee who has been a fish seller for the last 15 years, spoke of the congestion at the fish market. He said there are about 10 people working in one stall and facilities are poor. He was prepared to move if the new location had more space and better facilities. Premasiri said there was insufficient water and most of the pipes are broken, with “sometimes fish rubbish rotting for weeks in this market.” K . B. Sarath from Matara is another seller. He said “I have been working here for the last 12 years. Facilities here are poor. ”

G. Jayasankar from Aluthmawatha is among those who load and unload fish from lorries. “This is our home. We live here and what we receive in income is very low. We cannot survive if we are to move out. In that vicinity there would be locals who would force us out of a job and take our place.”
“Appi edda weela hoyagana kanneth hungak ammaruwen. Mewaa pitta genichchama appi merila yanne nedda? (We earn our daily sustenance with the greatest difficulty and if this is shifted to another location, would we not die?),” he said.

There were more than 300 lorries, some of them fitted with deep freezers, loading and unloading fish around the market. There were sellers of paper wrappings, sellers of sand, and a large number of tea kiosks operating. These lorries bring in several tonnes of fish and also take away similar quantities. Everyday more than 5,000 people converge at the St. Johns Fish market with consumers also not happy with the proposed transfer of the market to Peliyagoda.

There was consensus from most of those at the market that there would be widespread protests and resistance over the move to shift Sri Lanka’s biggest fish trading post to another location.

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