Mackerel on display at a hypermarket in Doha yesterday.
By Joseph Varghese/Staff Reporter
People who look for meals with mackerel dishes are in for a shock, as the price of the fish has shot up to exorbitant levels in Doha.
Mackerel, which used to be sold for QR10 or less per kg over a very long period of time, was being sold at QR28 yesterday at some hypermarkets while it was not available at many other shops. Even at the central fish market, mackerel was hardly seen.
It is learnt that the price of mackerel has been increasing steadily since two months. A supervisor at Safari Mall said that mackerel was rarely available in the market. He attributed the scarcity to the lack of availability of the fish from Saudi Arabia.
“The import from Saudi Arabia is very low nowadays. Even some of the vegetables that used to be imported from Saudi Arabia are not available now. Therefore we are bringing most of the vegetables from India,” he explained.
“Earlier the bulk of mackerel used to come from Saudi Arabia. Now it is not available due to some of the issues prevailing in Saudi Arabia. This has resulted in high prices,” said a salesman at Safari Mall.
“The price of mackerel and sardine has been going up for some time. Yesterday mackerel was sold at QR24 and today it is QR28 and we have only very limited stock. Sardine is sold at QR8 which is also very high, considering the fact that it used to be sold at QR2 sometime back.”
When checked, a salesman at Quality Hypermarket said that they had run out of the fish. “Whatever stock we had, was sold out by yesterday and we have not received any fresh stock today. Yesterday the fish was sold at QR25. We do not see any chance of the price coming down very soon as there is no sufficient supply.”