October 5, 2005

India seeks to export more value-added seafood
 

India's government has called for the seafood industry to focus more on value-added seafood exports as well as product diversification. While the country's seafood exports to the US have fallen due to anti-dumping duties there, the government said there were other lucrative markets India could turn to.

India's seafood-processing capacity was 11,250 million tonnes, of which only 20 percent was being utilised, reports said. Imported raw materials for processing could help increase the use of this capacity.

The government expressed disappointment over the slow growth in India's seafood exports over the last ten years. India's seafood export value only rose slightly from US$1 billion in 1994 to US$1.4 billion in 2004.