MLBA8: April / May 2009

 

Turbulent waters for India's seafood trade

 

 

Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI) president, Mr. Anwar Hashim, said exports during the current fiscal year would drop 25-30 percent in volume due to cancellation of orders and reduction of prices in markets like the EU, Japan, US and West Asia.

 

However, some good news appears in the horizon as just recently, the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) initiated to abandon the enhanced bonding requirement (EBR) on India's shrimp imports. This move, according to Indian exporters, is crucial to the seafood industry as trade with the US has declined sharply in the past four to five years.

 

Looking on, Hashim says that a lot has been done but still has a long way to go. Two great institutions have been formed, the Aquaculture Authority to register and control farms and farmed products and National Fisheries Development Board to create infrastructure for domestic and export products.

 

The Aquaculture Authority has already registered about 2,500 farms satellite - mapping them and controlling their input and output. The idea is to produce disease -free and antibiotic-free products for domestic as well as export markets.

 

The National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB) is developing infrastructure across the country with improvements from catch-to-table. This would bring about massive awareness of the health benefits of fish compared to other meats and hopefully will take our India's seafood industry to greater heights.

 

Further, India is also hopeful on the second edition of the economic stimulus package from the government. Yet the question remains - will these be enough for the industry to cope with the current crisis?