Meanwhile, a home-grown variety of basa, bred in the farms of Andhra Pradesh, has also entered the market. One of the largest cultivators here is the Ananda group of AP. They commenced cultivation in 2009 after a company visit to Vietnam. In Vietnam, density of basa fish in the ponds is 15-20 tonnes per hectare compared to the local fish varieties that is farmed at 5-6 tonnes per hectare. It made commercial sense to the Ananda group and today they harvest around 12,000 tonnes of basa per annum on their farms. “Most of the whole basa is sent to the Northeast states and sold at Rs 75-90 per kilo. The processed basa fillets are sold at Rs 190 in the supermarket chains,” says a company source. There are other Indian basa cultivators and importers in the fray too. Faraz Javed, director at Abad Fisheries, one of the largest importers of basa in Kerala, says, “To counter the rising cost of local fish, we thought it was a good idea to import basa. It’s akin to chicken and is a great source of protein.”