prahok

Video: Many Fish, Few Buyers This Prahok Season

The annual catch of the small fish used to make prahok, Cambodia’s famously pungent fish paste, has been abundant this year, fishers and traders say. But there appear to be fewer buyers around, and prices have dropped by as much as half, they say.

People gather on the shore of the Tonle Sap river in Kandal province’s Ponhea Leu district for prahok season on December 23, 2020. (Michael Dickison/VOD)

Bustling, Ephemeral Prahok Economies Sprout on Banks of Tonle Sap

For less than two weeks, hundreds of people will cram into markets now sprouting on the banks of the Tonle Sap, chopping and raking fish heads, heaving and weighing large baskets of small fish, and haggling over prices every step of the way.