Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) has predicted a bright future for seafood exports from Andhra Pradesh due to a steady rise in transportation of consignments from Visakhapatnam.
MPEDA Chairman K.S. Srinivas told The Hindu that during 2018-19, India exported seafood worth USD 6.72 billion with a quantity of 13.92 lakh tonne. During the same period, exports from A.P. were 3.1 lakh tonne with a value of $2.43 billion. The State contributed 36.16% and 22.54% in terms of value in dollar and quantity of Indian seafood exports during 2018-19.
He said they would achieve the target set for current year. “The target fixed for this year is $7 billion and we have crossed more than $5 billion by December, 2019,” he stated.
Asked whether Visakhapatnam was the leading hub for seafood exports, he said the city was the leading port for seafood exports with a quantity of 2.21 lakh tonne worth ₹11,913.07 crore ($1.72 billion) in 2018-19. It was the topmost seafood exporting port and contributed 26% in terms of value and 15.59% in terms of quantity of total seafood export from India.
Mr. Srinivas said world seafood exports accounted for $165.9 billion in 2018. India contributed 4% of world seafood exports, in terms of value, in 2018. China, Norway and Vietnam were the major seafood exporters in the world followed by India in 2018.
On new destinations, he said currently India was exporting seafood to 115 countries including major seafood markets like the USA, China, EU, Japan, Vietnam and Thailand. Bulgaria, Hungary, Luxembourg and Belize were some of the other markets for frozen shrimp with good demand and were yet to be tapped.
“India is also having opportunities for marketing frozen cuttlefish, octopus and squid to Bulgaria and Argentina. Similarly, frozen tuna is another major offering from our side which is having a good demand in Bulgaria, Ecuador and Tunisia,” he disclosed.
Sustainable fishing
Elaborating on the efforts made to promote sustainable eco-friendly fishing, Mr. Srinivas said MPEDA-NETFISH, a society to promote sustainable fishing, were conducting field-level programmes with fishers on sustainable fishing practices such as use of by-catch reduction devices and square mesh cod ends in trawl nets. In addition, NETFISH had also initiated hands-on training programmes on-board long line fishing vessels, he added.
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