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Oily Diplomaticy	Tourism shortfall, capital flight depress economy

Fiseekh sales dip amid health concerns       

Every year, just after the Sham Al Nessim holiday, fish get a bad rap. The Egyptian press inevitably reports that such-and-such number of people got sick after eating improperly treated fiseekh – a dish prepared from salted fish, traditionally eaten on Sham Al Nessim, the ancient holiday heralding the arrival of spring. “It isn’t bad fiseekh these people are eating,” insists fiseekh maker Mahmoud Ahmed Kamal from his shop in Shubra. “Something else poisoned them and they blame it on fiseekh.”

The fish used in preparing fiseekh is gray mullet, locally called bouri. According to statistics from the Egyptian General Authority of Fish Resources Development (GAFRD), about 3,000 tons of locally made fiseekh was sold in 2000 – a relatively small percentage of the 40,000 or so tons of local gray mullet caught and sold annually. Most of the fish ends up grilled, but the salted variety is what is regarded as a national delicacy.

Kamal, whose family has worked with salted fish for 120 years, said government campaigns warning against consumption of the traditional fish – in addition to the sluggish economy – were damaging the ancient industry.

Fiseekh vendor Abdou Shahyne concurred that economic winds had shifted against the industry. “People were happier a few years ago, because the economy was better and things weren’t so expensive,” he said from his store in Bab Al Louq.

Yet despite the tough times, he added, price wars are non-existent between vendors. How well a fiseekh merchant does depends less on price and more on his store’s cleanliness and the quality of his fish.

Season is another factor that determines the price of fiseekh. Prices rise slightly during the Sham Al Nessim period and at Eid Al Fitr. Sales are usually the lowest during Ramadan when Muslims are fasting during the day and prefer not to eat fiseekh at all because its saltiness causes thirst.

Two types of fiseekh dominate the Egyptian market, said Magdy Saleh, an official with GAFRD. The first is the fresh variety, prepared by producers like Kamal and sold by merchants like Shahyne. This kind is made from Egyptian gray mullet, caught in the northern Delta at places like Rashid, Damietta and Baltim.

The other variety is made from imported gray mullet – mostly from the United States and northern Europe – and costs about a third of the local variety. Fiseekh made from imported fish costs less, according to Saleh, because Europe’s market for gray mullet is tiny, despite an overabundance of the fish. Egyptian fiseekh runs at about £E 30-32 a kilo, while that made from imported fish fetches around £E 10-12 a kilo.

Shahyne said there is no competition between the local variety and the kind made from imported gray mullet, which is frozen before being shipped to Egypt. “After the imported ones are frozen, they don’t taste as good anymore, but they are cheaper,” he said. “So certain people buy them and try to make fiseekh from them – especially in poorer areas.”

While many of these frozen, imported gray mullet are grilled, a lot of people salt them, or at least try to, and some vendors sell fiseekh made this way. Kamal, however, insists that the frozen variety simply doesn’t take to being salted. Even if salted for 30 days (the required minimum), frozen gray mullet won’t absorb the salt. These fiseekh might taste salty, but the putrefaction process – which kills bacteria – hasn’t taken place.

This is what can change Sham El Nessim into Sham ad nauseum. “It was about 10 years ago, after three people died from eating fiseekh, that the government became more involved in monitoring its quality,” Saleh said.

Today, the ministries of health, agriculture and internal trade & supply are involved to ensure the salting process is done correctly.

With fresh gray mullet, the salting process should last anywhere from 30 to 45 days. As soon as the fish are netted, they are transported to a storage facility, where workers stuff their bodies and gills with salt and they are layered on top of each other.

Then the fish decompose, releasing a strong odor that – many claim – is quite enticing. “While putrefying, they produce a smell that we [Egyptians] don’t find unpleasant,” Saleh said. “It’s just like Roquefort cheese.”

And the memory of this smell keeps a small export market alive too. Influenced by expatriate Egyptians, some Arabs in other countries may have also acquired a taste for fiseekh, but vendors and producers alike doubt there is much room to expand salted-fish exports.

Kamal said that fiseekh was a purely Egyptian phenomena, and that his customer base proved it. “I have Egyptians who come to my place from Europe, America and Canada – just to take it back with them to give to people there,” he said.

M. SCOTT BORTOT

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