April 12, 2011

Experts see huge demand for Indian fish industry

Feed experts at the Fish Industry debate forum organised by the American Soybean Association Marketing International (ASA-IM) said they saw a huge demand for the Indian fish industry in the next five to 10 years.

The experts also recommended organised activities amongst fish farmers and feed producers on the lines of the National Egg Coordination Committee (NECC).

Michael C. Cremer, technical director of Global Aquaculture, ASA-IM, said there is a need to achieve sustainability by observing moderation in use of feed, and advised not to instead aim for greater profitability. He said that an overuse of feed would result in an accumulation of waste at the bottom of fish ponds, which would lead to various problems with a long-term impact.

Dr Michael called for efforts to ensure a faster pace of growth in Indian fish production so that the industry would be able to meet the growing demand for food products in future. In order to maintain the health of ponds and good yield in the next 10 years, waste should be generated up to naturally manageable limits, he said. There would be more waste if more feed was used, said Dr Michael. He added that over the years, Vietnam had come to use nearly 300 tonnes of feed per hectare and is now are struggling to reduce this to 100 tonnes by adopting various measures and in the face of losing sustainability.

G. Chandrasekhar, associate editor of Business Line, Mumbai, advised the fish industry to organise itself through a centralised forum so as to evolve effective marketing strategies and explore scope for the "branding" of fish products for making fish eating fashionable and more popular.

P.E. Vijay Anand, technical director of ASA-IM, assured the feed producers and farmers of further support from their organisation in enabling united efforts for further development of the industry. He said that from three years ago, the feed industry had grown to a capacity of 5 lakh tonnes per year in Krishna and West Godavari districts, which was a sign of greater potential for it. He suggested that ASA-IM could generate awareness among fish farmers to use "floating feed", which consists of 50% soy.