As a customer how do you find the fish market in terms of:

Quality
Quantity
Variety
Price

And does the Supply meets the demand the whole year?

intresting topic ice tea ..

I never went to fish market .. so I dont know much about it .. but I am sure other members would find your topics intresting ..

me too....

AP and Qoloob,

Please make a visit to "Matrah" or "Al Ghubra" fish market and provide me with a full report :)

I hate fish smelll :yuck:
I might ask my husband and give you the report

In terms of quality:
So unpredictable, they say it is fresh but there is no production date nor expiry date, we just have to take their word for it!! Plus the name is never written... most of us seem to eat fish but we are never quite sure what it is called unless you are told!! (although some supermarkets would have them packed with the necessary information but rare!!)

In terms of quantity:
It is amazing how some fish vanishes from the market all of a sudden!!

In terms of variety:
Lacking ... considering the number of fish variety we have in the sea!

In terms of price:
The only reasonable thing about the fish market!

So in summary.... fish market is poor!!

Originally posted by Seham


So in summary.... fish market is poor!!

interesting conclusion. though oman is kinda well known for the quantity and quality of fish it produces.

i think its a matter the time u go to the fish market. if u go there early then u'll find what u want , at a reasonable price too. but if u're late.. then of course u'll get the left overs.

over all i think that the fish market lives up to the standards during most days of the year.

Originally posted by NaBHaN
over all i think that the fish market lives up to the standards during most days of the year.
Mr Nabhan, do you know the basic ISO9001/2/3 requirements for basic quality standards?

Originally posted by Seham
Mr Nabhan, do you know the basic ISO9001/2/3 requirements for basic quality standards?

you expect a fish seller to be ISO 9000 certified!!!


This topic came on a time where I miss the Omani fish so much. I think it's one of the best fish you can ever find. If you only see the fish they sell in the US!!!. Not only in Muscat Markets the fish is fresh and nice, but also in other places that are too far from the see, such as Nizwa, bahla, and Izki. By 4 am everyday the fish market ground of Nizwa Suq is having all kind of fresh fish. You can see that it's fresh because you see the Land Cruisers (bu shanab) coming from Sur and muscat unloading their fish. This have been said you have to watch out for your fish source though, some fish have mercurey (Quick silver) in them and if eatn can be hazardous.

I know the chicken bucher we go to is ISO 9000 certified, why can't the fish fall in the same category?!!!

Originally posted by Seham
I know the chicken bucher we go to is ISO 9000 certified, why can't the fish fall in the same category?!!!

a chicken butcher can be a Q-Base certified in the ISO 9000 System. It Costs $7500 to get a Q-Base certificate after auditing.

ISO 9001: designed for companies and organizations that do design and development of their products or services as well as the production and delivery of them. Costs $500,000

ISO 9002: does not contain the design and development requirements. Costs $250,000

ISO 9003 :It is designed for organizations that only require final inspection and testing of their products and services to ensure that they have met the specified requirements. Costs $80,000

unless we are talking about a huge butching organization, then they are only Q-Base certified. Here is a list of the comapnes and organizations that are ISO9000 certified in Oman:

Essar Oil Ltd (Muscat Branch)
Khimji Permoglaze (Oman) LLC
Khimji Ramdas Agents for S G S in Oman
Oman Filters Industry Company (SAOG)
Oman Lubricants Co L L C
Sadolin Paints (Oman) Ltd
Shell Marketing (Oman) Ltd

though am not an expert about fish, but I know people always say that the Omani rich market is full of varaity .. and they choose what they like most!

regarding expiry dat, well scince when fish have an expiery date? as I know, as long as you freeze them they will always be ok to eat!

price wise am not sure ..

Everyone is misinterpreting my point of view..... I have no doubt about the quality and quantity of fish produced from our sea in Oman in comparison to other countries which have polluted environments. However, there is no consistency of production. To meet the customer needs there should be consistency and standardization. For example, the quality of the fish should be the same through out the day, there should be good storage facilities throughout the day so the fish quality stays the same. So what I am saying is ... there should be something like the following procedure:

1. All fish removed from the sea would be stored into a cool enviroment (Ice box for example) in a maximum of two hours so any fish that stays beyond 2 hours outside a cool environement would be discarded before it reaches the customer even. So therefore, you'd be guaranteed as a customer that no fish was left in the heat for more than hours!

2. All fish removed from the sea would be left in the shade and in a cooling enviroment.

3. The same fish should be grouped together and titled as a group with their name.

The above are all a type of 'qualitative measure' or they should have a 'standard operating procedure' (SOP). Which doesn't exist!! We have a sea that produces treasures, however, because there is no SOP, you can get the same fish sometimes tasting rotten and stinking horrible!!

Anyone (as a customer) should be able to buy fish, however, with the lack of consistency this is not possible i.e. I wouldn't know what good fish looks like or what is it called if I went to a fish market I have to depend on my father who has experience or my husband who is getting the hang of it!

Oh, ya, everything on this Earth has a production and expiry date depending on the storage conditon.

For example, if you store a fish at room temperature, it will expiry in may be 8 hours. If you store it in the refergirator it will expiry in 3 days, and if you store it in the Freezer it will expiry in 1-2 months etc.

Q. Silver, I don't quite understand your explanation of the Q-Base so can you call yourself ISO 9000 certified if you have Q-Base?. From what it looks I don't think this shop can efford it but may be we should ask him I'll get the name of the place I know it is located in Al Ghubra near 'dawar al shira3' and it has a big sign saying it is ISO 9000 certified.... it may be a big company involved in Chicken production, I'll try and get the name of it.

My main problem with the fish market in Muttrah is that it's a filthy place in a terrible location. Has anyone here been to the fish market in Kuwait? That's a really impressive place to go. It's big, very well lit, airconditioned, very spacious, and CLEAN. Here in Oman, parking is a huge problem, and once you get inside the market the place just stinks.

The quality of Omani fish is undeniably high. You can't argue about it. The problem is that our quality is so good that our fishermen get better prices when they sell to exporters, thus consumers in the country don't get the best product. Our best tuna and lobster are sold directly by the fishermen to exporters who process and sell the fish to companies in Japan and the far east. The fish that doesn't get exported to the far east goes to other GCC countries. As a result most days when you go to the fish market you don't get much of a choice, if you get anything at all.

Omanis are crazy about fish and are often willing to pay crazy prices to keep fish on their tables, and thus you always hear stories of idiots who pay 100 rials for a single tuna (sahwa or jaider).

Add to the above the sudden disappearance of some varieties of fish which happens from time to time (as mentioned by seham). This has nothing to do with our fishermen. Fish stocks are being depleted all the time all around the world. We used to think that our sea is full of tuna. Then scientist found out that tuna is a migratory fish. Over-fishing in other countries has led to the depletion of the number of tuna in our seas too. To add insult to injury, our government allowed fishing boats to fish in our waters. These boats use drift nets and long lines (fishing nets that are often more than 1 km long, or fishing lines which have thousands of hooks), which are illegal in other countries. A single boat can catch tons of fish in a day. These boats fish many kilometers away from our shore, much further than what our fishermen can get in their tiny boats. So the big boats catch the fish before they can get close enough for the fishermen to catch them.

As for the rest of the discussion about quality and what not, I think Omanis like buying their fish fresh right out the fishing boat. You can buy fresh fish these days from any good supermarket, and yet people still prefer to go to the fish market. I used to fish a lot and I see how the fishermen fish. They fill their boats with ice boxes and keep fishing till they fill their ice boxes with fish. Once they're full they head straight to the fish market and start selling. The kind of ice they use can last more than a day without fully melting. There is no danger of spoilage in the fish they sell. Besides, Omanis know how to check fish for freshness and thus fishermen won't risk the freshness of their catch.

When you go to the fish market in Oman, what you see in front of you is whatever was caught that day. A fisherman can't go out and catch every single variety. Whatever he catches he sells. If you want to be able to always get the kind of fish you want, you might have to go buy from a large supermarket that sells frozen fish that might be a couple days old.

Originally posted by Quick Silver
[

Essar Oil Ltd (Muscat Branch)
Khimji Permoglaze (Oman) LLC
Khimji Ramdas Agents for S G S in Oman
Oman Filters Industry Company (SAOG)
Oman Lubricants Co L L C
Sadolin Paints (Oman) Ltd
Shell Marketing (Oman) Ltd [/B]


Are all those fishnames or chicken ones ?

Then Khimji's telephone numbers are difficult to contact and if you sent them faxes for help after-sale no ones reply !!!! How arrogant a set-up they are.

I'd rather have no fish or chicken for their attitudes. I'll eat vegitables for a substitute to their products.

Originally posted by Quick Silver
Essar Oil Ltd (Muscat Branch)
Khimji Permoglaze (Oman) LLC
Khimji Ramdas Agents for S G S in Oman
Oman Filters Industry Company (SAOG)
Oman Lubricants Co L L C
Sadolin Paints (Oman) Ltd
Shell Marketing (Oman) Ltd

Am I reading it wrong.........what the list of the above companies got to do with fish business or have they changed their activities. ?

Originally posted by Seham

Q. Silver, I don't quite understand your explanation of the Q-Base so can you call yourself ISO 9000 certified if you have Q-Base?.

No you can't call yourself an ISO 9000 certified if you have a Q-Base certificate. Q-Base is designed for small businesses. It orginated in New Zeland in 1994. It's built on the ISO 9002. It's internationaly recognized.

Note: starting from December of this year the ISO 9000:1994 will be known as the ISO 9000:2000 since new standards and procedures have been added. All those that have certificates for ISO 9000: 1994 will have to re-certify.