March 7, 2007

India has potential to double seafood exports, says industry group

India's seafood exports can be doubled to over US$ 4 billion by 2010 if more financial resources could be committed to exporters and the aging fishing fleet could be upgraded, an industry group said.

The Associated chambers of commerce & industry of India (Assocham) has suggested an upgrade of fishing vessels along with more financial assistance to seafood exporters through the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA).

Poor financial assistance to exporters is one of the reasons for India's poorer export performance to overseas markets compared to other seafood exporting nations, the group said.

In a paper published by the group -- 'Neglected Seafood Exports', it has been projected that India's seafood exports have the potential to grow faster than at current rates in view of growing demand in regions like the EU, US, Canada & Middle East.

The paper suggests that the capacity of India's current fleet of 50,000 fishing vessels to be expanded from an average of 1.5 tonnes to 5 tonnes and be equipped with better equipment to allow it to hunt for deep sea fishes.

The paper also cautioned that compliance to hygiene and food safety measures such as Hazard Analysis And Clinical Control Point (HACCP) had also become paramount. 

India exports seafood mainly to the EU, the US and Japan.  Export to Middle East countries has also been growing, while the growth to China has been marginal. India's major export items include frozen fish, cuttlefish, squid and dried items.