Prahok Production Expected to Quadruple; Prices Drop by Half

Production of the pungent fermented fish paste Prahok is expected to quadruple this year as fisheries this season are reporting much higher annual catch numbers of the fish used in the paste then last year, officials said yesterday. Nao Thuok, general director of the Fisheries Administration, said that fishermen are expecting to catch up to 30,000 tons of Siamese mud carp, or trey riel, in the first of two annual fishing periods, up from just 7,000 tons last year. “The reason this year for the increased catch is because the government…cracked down on illegal fishing traps,” he said, adding that recent efforts to bolter fish reproduction in the Tonle Sap lake have also paid off. “The government was aided in releasing 137 tons of female fish and 4.6 million baby fish into the waterways surrounding the Tonle Sap,” he said.
Prahok, an integral part of the tradition Khmer diet, is made by setting the fish out to dry, rolling it with salt and packing it into jars, where it ferments over the course of a few weeks and eventually becomes a strong-flavored paste. Chan Bo, 4.6 million baby fish in Sen Sok district’s Samroang commune, said her fish catch has more than doubled this year, improving from 4,000 tons a week last year to 10,000 tons a week currently. “We are very happy this season because we have improved our fish catch to sell to farmers, and because there is more, the price is cheaper and more affordable,” she said.

She also said that the price at which fish is being sold has significantly dropped compared to last year, from between 15,000 and 20,000 riel per kg last year to between 700 and 800 riel per kg this year. Minh Bunly, the Tonle Sap lake program coordinator at the local NGO Fisheries Action Coalition Team, said that although the recent folds have adversely affected some rural businesses, it has had the opposite effect on the fishing industry. “According to information we received from fishermen around the Tonle Sap, there has been an increase of five to 10 times the amount of fish caught because of the floods,” he said, adding that the high water levels made it easier for the fish to breed. The first of the trey riel fishing periods will expire on Sunday, while the second is set to occur from Jan 30 to Feb 7.