Increase in demand for Indian seafood abroad

Visakhapatnam: Union Commerce and Industry minister, Nirmala Sitaraman has announced setting up of federated agencies of Marine Products Exports Development Authority (MPEDA) in all the maritime states that will look into the state-specific issues related to aquaculture.

These agencies will be headed by the concerned state’s chief secretary, while the representatives of the Seafood Exporters Association and other stakeholders will be members.

She had also announced export incentives for marine products under Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS), at an international seafood conference here on Friday. Under the MEIS, the government currently allocates '22,000 crore annually for exports.

“From this financial year onwards, an additional Rs 1,500 crore will be allocated under the scheme that will include certain marine and seafood items,” Ms Sitaraman said at the 20th edition of the three-day India International Seafood Show (IISS), which began here on Friday morning.

Delivering the inaugural address she voiced concern, that despite being a major producer, India’s seafood industry has a long way to go in fully tapping the potential for value addition.

“I held discussions with trade ministers from Japan and South Korea recently and they have expressed interest in collaborating with India for the development of aquaculture,” she added.

She hoped that the MPEDA would play a key role in bringing in the best industry practices from around the globe to accelerate the growth of the seafood industry.  Ms Nirmala Sitharaman also said that India is poised to attract investments in value addition to the seafood industry and hoped that Andhra Pradesh gets a huge chunk of them.

Expressing the government’s determination to make Andhra Pradesh the aquaculture hub not only of India but also of the world,  Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu, said the state accounted for over 45 percent of India’s cultured shrimp exports during 2015-16. “We expect to touch a target of 70 per cent over the next few years,” he added.

Stressing the need for controlling diseases in farmed shrimps, Naidu said his government has formed a Task Force to for set up state-of-the-art laboratories in this regard.

The IISS, with  ‘Safe and Sustainable Indian Aquaculture’ as the central theme of the event, has been organised jointly by MPEDA,  under the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, and Seafood Exporters’ Association of India (SEAI), with Export Inspection Council (EIC) as its knowledge partner.

Union urban development minister, M Venkaiah Naidu, who was the guest of honour, said there is a soaring demand for India’s seafood in the international market.

“The industry must strive to develop value addition, which will benefit farmers,” he stressed. Vizag MP and MPEDA member, Kambhampati Hari Babu, said that there is a need for developing fishing jetties associated with ports to protect the interests of fishermen.

MPEDA chairman Dr A Jayathilak said India’s seafood industry, which witnessed a dip of 10 per cent last year had now shown an increase of 10 percent this year, despite a global recession.  

SEAI president Padmanabham called for short and long term cooperation between the Centre and states to look into the interests of the seafood industry in connection with issues regarding trawling. He also urged the Centre to accord agriculture status to aquaculture sector to get better funding and incentives.