Business

Popular seafood market stocked for Holy Week

The Mercado de Marisco on Avenida Balboa has an abundance of fish, molluscs, and crustaceans.

Higher prices have slowed sales generally, but business is expected to pick up for Good Friday.

Jorge Fernández/LA PRENSA

Good Friday: Fish markets have plenty to offer for the holiday.1001483

Corvina. Red Snapper. Octopus. Parrot Fish. Grouper. Sole. Tiger shrimp. There's plenty of color, lots of good deals, and an abundance of tempting seafood at the Mercado del Marisco on Avenida Balboa these days. But the rising cost of fish, shellfish, and other marine creatures has had a noticeable effect on business at the market.

"Sales are very slow. The people look, but they don´t buy anything," said Nitza González, who sells ceviche.

"You have to be positive," said Saturnino Bustamante, who has been toiling in the seafood business for 35 years. After all, this is Holy Week in Panama, and seafood merchants are hoping that people will go to the market in search of a traditional Good Friday meal of corvina or mackerel, passing from stall to stall as vendors filet fresh fish with newly sharpened knives, pry open the shells of stubborn mollusks, and chop tender squid with enviable mastery.

Celia Bethancourt, a customer in the market, considers that "eating fish is a way of rendering tribute to God," while she contentedly buys a couple of pounds of sierra, or Spanish mackerel.

A pound of fish, explained one of the vendors, has increased in cost between 50 cents and 75 cents simply because fishermen have raised their prices, not least of all because of an increase in the cost of fuel. Moreover, added merchant José González, "The fish are scarce. That's why they're more expensive."

Given the tradition of eating fish on Good Friday, sales at the Mercado de Marisco may be slow in general, but they are likely to be brisk as the holiday approaches, despite the high prices.