January 10, 2005

Indian Seafood Exports Hit By Tsunami

India¡¯s Rs 6,000-crore seafood exports may take a dive of 30% in the aftermath of the tsunami that wiped out fishing hamlets, damaged boats, inundated shrimp farms and destroyed hatcheries along the east coast.

While initial reports from the industry indicated that the damage was confined to specific areas and would not affect the industry seriously, detailed assessments point the fact that affected regions would need another year or two for rebuilding and rehabilitation, according to industry sources.

Shrimp, which constitutes 66% of the total marine export value, would be hardest hit as the production capability of the industry has slowed down.

Although the catch of shrimp and cephalopod along the open seas of the east coast made up a mere 15% of exports, the inundation of the aquaculture farms, damage to their embankments and pumping stations and hatcheries along the east coast, the nerve centre for shrimp production could cripple exports even more.

As many of the affected are small operators, the industry fears a major capacity reduction in the shrimp farms for the next few years. Several of these had not taken out any insurance against natural calamities and without this insurance capital, any possibility of restarting farming operations appears null and void.

A large extent of the destruction was due to slush seeping in after the tidal waves receded. Shrimp hatcheries along the coastline have been flooded, which would mean that availability of seeds for the next few seasons would be badly affected.

The massive destruction of fishing craft would limit the gravid mother prawn catch from the ocean. As a result, even those farms that survived or escaped the wrath of the tsunami would not get sufficient mother prawns for the required seed production.

Rough estimates put the total number of fishing boats destroyed beyond repair at 70,000 and hundreds of fishermen and their families were dead or missing. Surviving members could well shift to other means of livelihood, further hurting the industry.

The India International Seafood Show scheduled to be held in Kolkota from February 4 to 6 has been postponed by a year and will be held from February 3 to 5 in 2006 instead.