PRIMARY PRODUCTION
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grants were made to rehabilitate the fishing fleet and a fish market- ing scheme was introduced and controls imposed on the landing and wholesale marketing of marine fish, with the long-term object of developing the industry on a sound economic footing. From this beginning developed the Fish Marketing Organization, a non- Government trading organization controlled by a civil servant, now the Commissioner for Co-operative Development and Fisheries.
The organization is a non-profit-making concern which finds its revenue and pays its expenses from a six per cent commission on all the sales in its wholesale markets. It operates under the Marine Fish (Marketing) Ordinance, 1956 which provides among other things for a Fish Marketing Advisory Board composed of unofficials to assist the organization.
The organization runs five wholesale fish markets, at Aberdeen and Shau Kei Wan on Hong Kong Island, Yau Ma Tei in Kowloon and Tai Po and Sha Tau Kok in the New Territories. Six fish- collecting depots have been set up in other fishing centres and the organization provides sea and land transport from these to the wholesale markets. The depots also serve as liaison offices for the organization. Construction work started during the year on a new market at Castle Peak, in the New Territories, and on repro- visioning the existing Kowloon market at a new site. The latter is financed jointly by a grant from the Colonial Development and Welfare Fund and from the organization's own resources.
At the wholesale markets, fish is sorted into species and sizes by the staff of the organization, weighed into lots and sold by public auction to licensed retailers. Fishermen may collect the proceeds from their sales directly after the sale has taken place or, if asked to do so, the organization will send the money back to the depot which serves their areas. A further service is the transpor- tation of fish to buyers' establishments in the urban areas.
Fresh fish sales through the Fish Marketing Organization increased by four per cent during the year, while sales of salt and dried fish decreased by three per cent. The average annual whole- sale price for fresh marine fish decreased by three per cent compared with 1962, while the price for salt or dried marine fish decreased by five per cent. The embargo on the importation of salt and dried fish from the Colony imposed by the Chinese People's Government in 1950, remained in force throughout the year. Salt fish exporters
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