A note on the fishing industry in Kelantan, 1933
This note by M. C. ff. Sheppard, published in 1995, documents his 1933 observations of the fishing industry in Kemaman, Terengganu, covering the trade’s divisions, equipment, and the credit relationships between Malay fishermen and Chinese dealers.
Sheppard describes the industry as divided into three parts: the dried fish trade (the principal occupation), the cooked fish trade, and a seasonal whitebait trade, with the principal export destination being Singapore. He catalogues five main types of boats and nets, from the large pukat takul worked by five men far out at sea to the small pukat jaring operated by a couple (p. 7). The note’s central concern is the economic structure of the trade: because nets cost beyond the means of individual Malay fishermen, they have long been dependent on advances from Chinese fish dealers at Kuala Kemaman, and the Dagangang (dealer-creditor) effectively controls the auction of fish caught with the net for which debt is owed, depressing prices for other dealers (p. 8). Sheppard notes that a Malay Dagangang, Haji Wan Osman, had previously provided competition but was excluded by the arbitrary pricing power of Singapore merchants, and he sees no prospect of the trade returning to Malay control without government interference (p. 8). The most pressing problem he identifies is the increasing indebtedness of the fishermen, aggravated in 1933 by exceptionally poor catches (p. 8).