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Get live fish, sea food and other value-added fish products soon from Fishwaale, an app developed by Morigaon-based Aqua Blue Global Aquaculture Solutions Private Limited, India’s first online platform.
Fishwaale, an app developed by Aqua Blue Global Aquaculture Solutions Private Limited, Assam India’s first online platform provides a marketplace exclusively for the people related to fisheries and aquaculture which includes farmers, producers, distributors to get the best deals and trade their products all over India.
It has just raised Rs 50 lakhs in its first round of funding from North East Venture Fund
(NEDFi Venture Capital Limited).
The total fish market in Assam is around Rs 40,000 crores and the firm is anticipating revenues of around Rs 15 crores in 22-23.
"Farmers do not have access to any platform where they could purchase inputs for their
fisheries, nor do they get access to retailers due to which they sell their fish at a low price" says RazaQul Islam of Morigaon-based Aqua Blue Global Aquaculture Solutions Pvt Ltd.
"Aqua Blue received the funding to develop the app in a user-friendly way and to develop their idea of Aqua Hubs across the state. The aqua hubs are expected to remove the middleman chain as well as the traditional auction system associated with the business providing more benefit to the local farmers" he said.
Interestingly, Fishwaale is creating a logistics solution whereby live fish could be carried from farmers using customised tanks and vehicles to the market. The logistics solution will be a GPS and IoT enabled system whereby the condition of the water (Biological Oxygen Demand), the live position of the vehicle can be monitored.
The solution will also have an aeration mechanism that will be operational as
per the readings shown. The tanks are being designed in a manner that it could also be
used to carry inputs to the farmers, therefore bringing efficiency and reducing logistics.
Presently, tarpaulin and human labour is used for transporting live fish.
Labour is used to operate a drum/ paddle to agitate the water for aeration. During the
aeration process many fish get hurt for which mortality is around 20% at least. In some
cases it is 100%. Dead fish do not fetch good price.
Aquaculture equipment and medicine will also be available on Fishwaale. Aquarium
tanks, ornamental fish and equipment can also be placed for orders online.
Besides, live and fresh fish, seafood and other value-added fish products will be available at the Aqua Hubs for the consumers.
Fishwaale will also have physical hubs in all the districts (starting with 5 hubs)
which will form as the access points for buyers of fish. The rates at which fish are bought
or sold will be accessible by the buyer as well as the seller to maintain transparency.
Fishwaale will only charge a fee for providing the logistics solution.
The platform which has just been made available to fish farmers in Assam will be rolled out to other states of the Northeast and then pan-India.
"The solution provided by Fishwaale is to bring efficiency to the traditional system by providing end to end logistics solution and transparency in market rates for inputs as well as live fish" he said.
At present there are no platforms of market intelligence solutions available that provide transparent market price of inputs and live fish. The current system operates through a chain of middlemen.
"Farmers will get better value for inputs as well as for their harvests. Transparency in the
prices and data analytics which will be part of the package will help farmers design their
farming / harvesting season" he said.
As regards competition in this line, Chennai-based Aqua Connect is only an online platform and
does not provide end to end solution whereas Fishwaale provides end to end solution, which
includes logistics and market through the hubs.
The app in new look will have features like Geo Tagging, Fishery Profit Loss Book, Fish Disease Solutions Online, Information on all the Government Schemes, DPR Preparation for Loan and Schemes etc.
