JOHOR BAHRU: Marine life from rivers and the sea are often sold at high price by traders as they are difficult to get, especially if they are sold in the urban areas and popular stuff among tourists.

However, at the Bakar Batu Orang Asli Morning Market in Permas Jaya here, where the traders are mostly from the Orang Asli community, the price is unreasonably cheap.

This has prompted many lovers of marine life from the river and sea to travel the long distance to the market, even though they have to rush, as the market is opened for only two hours, which is from 8 am to 10 am, because of the cheap price.

Some of the goods are sold for as low as RM4 per kilogramme.

A trader, S. Kristina, 36, said she would go to the river or to the sea as early as 6.30 am to get her daily catch to be sold at the market as she prefers to offer fresh ones for her customers.

"I have been fishing for five years and the job has been my main source of income to support my family. After I'm satisfied with the day's catch, I will straight away come to the market to sell my catch. Many of my customers find the price unreasonable low, but I don't feel I'm losing out for selling my catch at so low a price.

"I don't mind selling my catch at a cheap price.What is important is that I have customers who want to buy them. I feel satisfied knowing that my customers are happy with what I sold them. I am grateful to them for buying our catch," she told Bernama recently.

Kristina, who is an Orang Asli Seletar, said before, she was able to get RM300 a day from the sale of her marine catch, but the situation changed with the country hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Since the COVID-19 pandemic, we get less customers coming to the market that we hardly manage to make sale of RM200 a day. At time, I can only sell RM30 worth of marine life, but thankfully, the situation is back to normal now," said the mother of four children.

A survey by Bernama found that various fresh marine life from the rivers and the sea, such as mussels, prawns, oysters, ikan banang susu, ikan belukang, crabs, ikan kitang and ikan daun baru are sold at the market, which provides a special site for the Orang Asli to sell their marine catch.

Another trader, Atan Mamut, 41, of Kampung Teluk Jawa, said he was taught by his parents to catch marine life from the river and the sea from an early age to enable him to become a skilled fisherman.

"The knowledge was passed down to me and I did not expect many people are interested to buy our catch," he said.

Meanwhile, a customer, Sapiah Sukarino, 65, said she was willing to drive a distance of 12 kilometres from Larkin to the market to get fresh river and sea products at a much cheaper price than from the regular markets.

"I will be at the market at least twice a week to do my marketing, especially for wet items. Before this the market was located in Stulang Laut.

"This market here offers new and fresh stock and the price is cheaper compared to the price at other markets. I am satisfied, "she said, adding that the Orang Asli traders in the market were very friendly .

Othman Saib, 58, of Gelang Patah, who concurred with Sapiah, said the market was also easy to find and the price of goods sold at the market was reasonable .

He said he would come to the market twice a month to get fresh seafood.

The morning market, initially at Stulang Laut, is relocated to the Tapak Khas Jualan Hasil Laut Orang Asli near Sungai Tebrau here, in 2018.

The Seletar Orang Asli or the 'Sea Gypsies' are a group of coastal and sea travellers who live in boats on islands, coastlines and river estuaries. Their main settlement area are on the coast of the Straits of Johor and in northern Singapore.

-- BERNAMA