Nizona Marine Products Private Limited or NMP as known in the industry, while venturing out on their journey to procure dried fish scales covered the length and breadth of the vast nation – India. 

It all begins at the Kolkata fish markets. The fish sellers cut the fish and discard the non-edible parts of the fish, which consists of skin, scales and sometimes bones. These leftovers are littered haphazardly by the sellers and they had no idea that they were throwing away something precious! Some people who had the will to earn extra bucks or in dire need of money were appointed by NMP to collect the leftovers from these markets and bring them to NMP. At NMP’s processing house these leftovers are cleaned and scales are separated and thoroughly cleaned and either sun dried or machine dried. 

scales skin and bones
The same model was then applied to other parts of West Bengal such as 24 Parganas, Howrah, Digha, Burdwan and many more villages across the state. The people appointed by NMP followed the same above mentioned steps and started bringing in more raw material (fish scales) to be processed and dried. The word spread across and more and more people joined the movement started by NMP in the state of West Bengal. This movement has directly or indirectly uplifted people from the lowest strata who at one point of time hardly had any source of income and now earn a decent amount of money to run the household and give good education to their children. 

With West Bengal already on the roll, team NMP went ahead to the neighbouring state of Bihar. The experience and knowledge gained in West Bengal along with evolved tools and technology helped NMP in duplicating the model in Bihar.  In Bihar NMP is working in tandem with the government affiliated fisheries associations.

Fish farmers and retail sellers in fish markets in West Bengal and Bihar today earn a decent amount and are paid value as per international standards for the fish scales by NMP.  Fish waste disposal is a major problem of fish markets and the municipalities. Our business model helps collect waste and contribute to the cleanliness mission.

A surprising incident happened in Bihar. The fish farmers who supplied scales started requesting for collagen peptide to Nizona Marine Products to ease out their knee joint pain! 

collagen peptide
The circular socio-economic movement has hence begun. The dry fish scales which were disposed of as waste or very low value usages are now helping in two things 1) Generating employment and income 2) Improving health of many people who can not easily afford knee surgeries. 

Collagen peptide is a boon to old age people to have healthy joints and reduce or avoid expensive surgeries. It also is a good supplement without any side effects for people across all age groups for immunity building and healthy living. 

Collagen is a very versatile protein gaining increasing popularity worldwide. Due to the increase in awareness of collagen benefits; the demand of collagen raw materials (i.e dry fish scales) is increasing too.