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Amid pandemic, luxury resort in Kerala turns swimming pool into fish farm

Amid pandemic, luxury resort in Kerala turns swimming pool into fish farm

Aveda Resort

Coronavirus pandemic has severely impacted the travel and hotel industry, however, a luxury resort in southern Indian state has started a new economic activity to save the business sinking because of the crisis.

Aveda Resort in the state of Kerala has turned its 150-metre (500-feet) pool into a fish farm and the resort is planning to export the harvest to the Middle East.

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The resort is generally packed with European travellers, but the pandemic has forced the owners to use its pool with 7.5 million litres of water for pearl spot fish farming.

"We have had zero revenues, so in June, we put around 16,000 two-month-old pearl spot fish in the pool," said Aveda's general manager Jyotish Surendran to news agency AFP.

"We plan to harvest by November and will export to the Middle East," he said.

The fist is fondly eaten in Southern India and the Middle East and Surendran claims the value of four tonnes of pearl spots growing in the pool could worth $40,000 on the market.

The general manager says that the money generated from the farm could not compensate the losses they suffered due to the pandemic, but he was hopeful that the money would help them keep the business running until tourists return.

"We can't continue with this farm in the pool, but we are trying to find alternative land where we can build up this knowledge for bigger projects," Surendran said.