September 21, 2010

Indian seafood exports up 22% in July

Indian seafood exports increased by 22% in July to US$170 million, compared to US$139 million in July 2009, due to higher US, Japanese and European demand, according to Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI) officials.

Seafood exports yielded US$638 million during the first four months of FY 2010-11 against the US$517.40 million during the same period of the previous fiscal year.

Higher catches in India have helped the trend and led to diminished domestic prices. The only worry of the US$2-billion industry, said national SEAI president Anwar Hashim, is the weakening dollar and the consequent lowering of the export realisation.

The Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) informed that climbing Japanese demand for tiger black shrimp played an important role in the rising exports last July, according to reports.

Hashim said that better landings has helped in higher exports, such as cuttle fish, squid and black tiger prawns have been higher, which has also helped in lowering the domestic price and in turn making us competitive at the global level.

Exports are usually low during the monsoon season lasting June-August due to a trawling ban in coastal states.

Hashim believes the importers in Europe and the US are now again increasingly growing their business with India.

The effect of the anti-dumping duty and customs bond put into force starting in 2004 harshly affected Indian seafood exports, as Indian shrimp exporting firms fell from 228 to fewer than 75.

Frozen shrimp exports make up nearly 50% of the value of India's total seafood exports. The US regulations consequently harmed the aquaculture farms along India's coast.

These losses were more than compensated, though, by burgeoning trade with West and South Asian countries. Exports to the former jumped by 27% during the past year while exports to Southeast Asian countries rocketed by 62% during the last fiscal year.

Meanwhile, exports to Japan have expanded despite the country's very high quality standards, MPEDA said. The first quarter's export volume rose by 47% while value climbed by 30%.