Fish cutting centres (FCs) are ancillary small-scale preprocessing units supporting major fish processing industries. The FCs are involved in partial dressing (beheading, deskinning, degutting and washing) of fishes. The partially processed fishes form raw material input for canning and surimi plants. Primary data on types of fish processed, quantity and cost of different species purchased from landing centres, quantity processed per day, production cost, the final selling price of processed products, number of workers in the firm, labour cost, number of working days, cost of other inputs (ice, electricity, etc.) were collected from the selected FCs in Karnataka through customised schedules. The net benefit earned, resource utilization patterns and processing cost of each resource were calculated. Threadfin breams were the major resource (42-43% of the total threadfin bream landings in Karnataka) processed by FCs followed by Indian mackerel, lizardfishes, rock cod, ribbonfish and oil sardine. While the processed threadfin breams, lizardfishes, rock cods, and ribbonfish formed the raw material for surimi plants, the oil sardine and the Indian mackerel were taken by canning and processing plants. A maximum profit was observed in the case of rock cods, while a minimum in the case of oil sardine. The FCs are also very important from the socio-economic point of view as each cutting shed unit provides seasonal part-time employment to nearly 80-100 fisherwomen and each earns `200 - 300 per day. These units not only provide alternate livelihoods to fisher-women but also generate nominal profits for the FCs operators

Fish Cutting Centres, fisherwomen, livelihood, marine bio-resources, management