On a cold, June morning at the Kokernag trout farm in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district, about 90 km from Srinagar, Fayaz Ahmad Mir hauls a net through a concrete raceway (an artificial channel) fed by a freshwater spring.
The temperature of the water is around 10 degrees Celsius year-round, too cold for a human to survive for more than 15 minutes, Mir says, but ideal for trout. Sajad Hussain Dar, chief project officer of the Kokernag farm, says that rainbow trout thrive at between 5 degrees and 15 degrees Celsius. “The more hygienic the water, the faster they grow,” chimes in Mir.
Jammu and Kashmir has emerged as India’s leading trout producing region with around 3,010 tonnes produced in 2024–25, supported by the Kokernag hatchery and over 2,000 private trout units, according to data released by the ministry of fisheries, animal husbandry and dairying last month. Production in the Union Territory has surged more than tenfold, from 2015-16, according to Manzoor Ahmad Samoon, deputy director of J&K’s central fisheries department, making it India’s leader in cold-water aquaculture.
Jammu and Kashmir now accounts for more than half of India’s estimated annual trout output of roughly 5,443 tonnes, according to Samoon, ahead of Himachal Pradesh’s 1,673 tonnes and Uttarakhand’s 710 tonnes.
The Valley’s cold, oxygen-rich rivers, fed by glacial melt from the Pir Panjal and Himalayan ranges, have given it what amounts to a natural monopoly of a fish species that is actually not native to the region.
According to the J&K fisheries department website, an attempt was made to introduce trout to the region in 1899, when the Duke of Bedford sent 10,000 trout ova to the valley from Britain. “Unfortunately the first batch perished enroute due to non-existence of air transport,” says the website.
A second shipment of trout ova arrived in excellent condition from Scotland in December 1900, it adds, without explaining how they survived as air transport was still non-existent at the time. Thanks to those initial efforts, two varieties of the species, rainbow trout and brown trout, began to grow in Kashmir.
For much of the following century, the fish remained the preserve of anglers with permits and tourists with itineraries.
Then in the summer of 2020, as Kashmir grappled with the first wave of covid, three cousins in Srinagar invested ₹7 lakh in a business built around trout, a fish that few Indians consume. Six years on, their company, Kashmir Trout, works with 250 farmers, employs 50 people and generates annual revenue exceeding ₹1 crore.
The company procures and produces roughly 200 tonnes of trout annually and supplies markets across Kashmir as well as Delhi, Bengaluru and Kolkata.
What makes trout farming viable, and what explains the surge in private investment in the sector more broadly, is trout’s unusual price architecture. In Kashmir, fresh rainbow trout retails at ₹500–550 per kilogram. Ship it to Delhi and the price reaches ₹1,300. In Bengaluru, it climbs to ₹1,500 per kg, reflecting the cost of cold-chain logistics over a distance of around 3,000 kilometres.
According to industry estimates, a farmer producing trout at a cost of around ₹345 per kg and selling to a trader at approximately ₹495 enjoys a margin of more than 40%. The trader will earn a margin of 10% if he sells to the consumer at ₹550 per kg. For many Indian commodities, the ratio runs the other way.
Trout is rich in omega-3, nearly boneless, grows in filtered glacial water, and carries a provenance story that resonates with the same consumers who buy Norwegian salmon, says Mir Autif, a consultant with Kashmir Trout. Imported Norwegian salmon currently retails in India for ₹2,500–3,500 per kg, making it a luxury for most consumers. “That is where we see our advantage,” says Autif. “Consumers get a premium cold-water fish at less than a third the price of imported salmon. It is fresh, locally produced and reaches the market within hours of harvest.”
Unlike freshwater fish such as rohu, catla or carp, trout is marketed as a premium delicacy associated with European cuisine and healthy eating. “It is still more affordable than imported seafood such as salmon or lobster,” says Aasim Bashir, Kashmir Trout’s chief operating officer.
India focus
Globally, the trout industry is dominated by Norway, Turkey and Chile. However, the geographic location of Kashmir gives it an advantage. Dubai, Doha, Riyadh and Kuwait City are between two and a half and four hours from Srinagar by air. Trout harvested in Kokernag can reach a restaurant in Dubai the same day.
Autif, however, believes the Indian market must come first. “Before focusing on exports, we should focus on supplying Indian cities consistently,” he says. “Our strength is fresh, cold-water fish produced naturally. India itself is a huge market.”
Nusrat Jan, a 36-year-old farmer, started her trout farm in 2014 in Dhara, near Srinagar, with an investment of ₹5 lakh, of which the government provided ₹1 lakh through the farm-support Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, or RKVY, scheme. She was among the first private farmers to enter the sector before the wave of government subsidies that followed.
Today, her extended family operates a cluster of trout farms, producing around 20 tonnes annually and generating a turnover of ₹40 lakh. The change in demand over the past two years has startled her. “A barbecue seller who bought five kg daily from us in 2024 now takes 50 kg. Such is the demand that there is no need to think about exports yet,” she says, echoing Autif.
In Daksum, a tourist hamlet near Kokernag, visitors are served freshly caught trout fried or grilled in local cottages. Suhail Ahmad Baba, manager of a property there, says the farm produces 60 quintals annually, all consumed by tourists visiting the site. One quintal is about 100 kg. “Live trout sells for ₹500 per kg, fried trout for ₹800, and grilled for ₹1,000,” he adds.
The policy engine
Kashmir’s trout surge did not happen overnight. It was engineered through a sequence of government schemes that targeted cold-water aquaculture as a high-value sector worth developing in a region with limited industrial alternatives.
From 2015 to 2020, the Blue Revolution scheme laid the groundwork through investments in hatcheries, raceways and reservoir stocking. It was followed by the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana, which expanded support for cold-water fisheries with projects worth over ₹5,638 crore, sanctioned specifically for cold-water states.
Under the Holistic Agriculture Development Programme launched in 2022, with ₹233 crore allocated to fisheries development, J&K now offers a 50% subsidy on trout farming infrastructure, rising to 60% for women, Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes.
Thanks to a push from the government, private trout-rearing units across J&K have grown from 388 in 2015 to 2,077 today, says Samoon, reeling off figures from the J&K fisheries department. In addition, hatcheries have expanded from one to nine. Feed mills, which did not exist in the territory five years ago, now number six.
Recirculating aquaculture systems—temperature-controlled indoor facilities that insulate production from climate variability—have grown to nine installations.
In large part, those efforts have focused on rainbow trout, which fisheries officials say adapt readily to raceways and artificial feed. Brown trout, on the other hand, are confined to open water bodies for angling and are not commercially viable at scale. They grow slowly and are prone to genetic depression under artificial conditions.
According to Dar, in December 2025, about 300,000 eyed brown trout ova imported from Denmark were released into more than 40 streams and 12 lakes across Kashmir in an effort to restore aquatic biodiversity and revive angling tourism.
Beyond farming
The Kokernag facility, one of Asia’s largest trout farms, sits adjacent to a famous botanical garden fed by some of Kashmir’s largest freshwater springs. Spread across nearly 20 hectares, the farm draws hundreds of tourists daily, many of whom end their visit with a plate of fried trout from the kiosks. It is also the Valley’s most critical trout seed production centre, supplying both government farms and hundreds of private operators across the region and beyond.
Sajad Hussain Dar, chief project officer at the trout farm, says the cluster has grown beyond farming alone to include processing and marketing as well. “Our trout farms at Kokernag produced over 60 lakh (6 million) trout eggs, 20 lakh (2 million) fish seed and around 100 tonnes of rainbow trout last season, generating more than ₹2.7 crore in revenue,” he says.
About 440,000 eggs were sold outside J&K, to buyers in Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand and Ladakh, generating ₹12 lakh. Fingerling sales contributed an additional ₹50 lakh, says Dar. A fingerling is a juvenile trout roughly the length of a human finger.
The breeding cycle runs from October to February. Mature female rainbow trout, some weighing 4–5 kg and five years old, are stripped of their eggs, while males yield milt (sperm). The two are mixed and incubated in hatchery trays with continuous cold spring water. “Once their breeding cycle ends, they are sold through the farm,” says Auqib Ahmad, a farm supervisor.
Tech-enabled farming
In March 2024, Khyber Aquaculture entered the sector with what it describes as India’s first large-scale recirculating aquaculture system (RAS)-based trout facility, using Danish-bred fingerlings and a precision-controlled production environment.
RAS technology enables trout farming beyond traditional spring-fed locations by allowing farmers to rely on groundwater and controlled water-recirculation systems instead of natural streams and springs.
Dar, the chief project officer at the Kokernag trout farm, explains that trout reared in natural spring-fed raceways is generally regarded as superior in flavour to RAS fish. “The difference is real because trout reared in natural springs grow in continuously flowing, cold, oxygen-rich water, whereas RAS recreates those conditions artificially,” Dar says. “The taste of RAS-grown trout is still good and acceptable to consumers, but it does not quite match the flavour of naturally reared trout.”
“Within a year, we have created capacity for 5,000 tonnes and produced around 1,200 tonnes,” says Hakim Mudasir, the company's fish health and quality control lead. The facility’s systems are designed to increase survival rates by 25–30%, lower feed conversion ratios, and reduce pathogen exposure.
A processing plant is expected to be operational shortly, after which the company intends to begin exports. “If Khyber delivers on its projections, it could shift Kashmir’s trout story from volume to value,” Mudasir tells Mint.
Kashmir Trout has already moved in that direction. After opening south Asia’s first live trout retail centre in 2021, the company expanded into farm-to-table restaurants in Srinagar, home delivery, and intercity shipping. The fastest-selling item is a ‘Trout Bucket’ similar to the KFC bucket, targeting younger urban consumers.
On value addition, Kashmir Trout’s Autif says the company is already supplying trout roe (often marketed as trout caviar), a premium gourmet product, to high-end restaurants in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. It also sells trout fingerlings to private farmers in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Sikkim, creating additional revenue streams beyond table fish.
“We have moved beyond selling fresh trout. From July, we will open outlets in Bengaluru and Kolkata where we will also sell processed trout and smoked trout products. The idea is to strengthen Kashmir’s presence in premium fish markets and move further up the value chain,” says Autif.
Coming: An aqua park
The government’s most ambitious intervention is the ₹100-crore Integrated Aqua Park Project sanctioned for Anantnag district, announced at a national conference on cold-water fisheries in Srinagar, in March. The park is designed to push J&K’s trout output toward 5,000 tonnes, strengthen processing and cold storage infrastructure, and open export markets, primarily in West Asia, which have so far remained out of reach.
Shabir Ahmad Shabir, nodal officer for the project and assistant director of fisheries in Anantnag, tells Mint the government has invited expressions of interest at the national and international level and expects participation from Scandinavian countries, the first such collaboration since a European Union-funded hatchery was established at Kokernag in 1984. A dedicated ₹20-crore component within the park is earmarked for processing, marketing and transportation.
The park is also targeting a significant leap in production efficiency. “In one cubic metre of water, we currently cultivate 21 kg of trout,” Shabir explains. “We want to take that to 100 kg per cubic metre through advanced technology. In the hatchery, we want to take fish survival rates from the current 70% to 100%.”
However, Dr. Irfan Ahmad, professor and head of the Department of Fish Genetics and Biotechnology at Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, says a 100% survival rate is not a realistic expectation in commercial aquaculture. “Fish mortality is inevitable in any aquaculture system,” he says. “Despite the best management practices, some mortality will always occur due to biological and environmental factors.”
“Mortality is part of fish farming, especially during the early stages of the lifecycle,” concurs Autif. “We recently produced around 5 lakh (500,000) fish seed, of which nearly 60,000 died despite maintaining standard farming practices.”
Climate risk
The trout industry’s most significant long-term threat is the same environment that created it. Trout require cold, oxygen-rich water. Rising temperatures, shrinking streams and erratic snowfall threaten the conditions that make Kashmir their ideal habitat.
“Trout get affected faster than most fish because water is their medium,” says Samoon of J&K’s central fisheries department. “Dry winters and rising temperatures increase fish mortality.”
Earlier this month, American scientists declared that El Niño, the Pacific Ocean weather pattern that pushes up global temperatures, has officially begun. If it has a severe impact on India, it could well compound the climate challenges already being faced by Kashmir.
Between 1 October and 31 December 2025, J&K received just 77.5mm of rainfall against a normal average of 127.7mm, while the first three weeks of January saw an extraordinary 96% shortfall, according to official weather data.
These deficits matter because winter precipitation determines how much water is available to feed rivers in the months that follow. Prolonged dry spells and delayed snowfall are destabilizing the territory’s snow-fed river systems.
Dr. Riyaz Ahmad Mir, Scientist-in-Charge at the National Institute of Hydrology's Western Himalayan Regional Centre in Jammu, is not overly worried. “Even if natural springs get affected in the future, RAS technology could provide an alternative by allowing farmers to use groundwater and recirculated water under controlled conditions, reducing dependence on spring-fed systems,” he explains.
Kashmir’s trout farmers, however, are praying it doesn’t come to that.
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