Sources in the Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI) told The Financial Express that Chinese importers are harassing Indian exporters with "unfair trade practices". They said Chinese buyers were putting the Indian exporters in a bind by negotiating a further reduction in prices after the consignments have crossed over into China. They also said that often, Chinese importers got away with 30-40 per cent reduction in prices as it was unviable for Indian exporters to bring back the cargo. "We have to succumb to theirblackmailing as it is unviable to bring the consignment back to the country incurring additional transportation and insurance costs", SEAI sources said.

To top it all, Chinese buyers are making inordinate delay in payments and not honouring the LCs they issued to Indian exporters. They said Chinese buyers owe over Rs 28 crore to four top seafood exporters in the country. Following this, they said the industry is facing a severe payment crisis as the Indian banks have decided not to accept LCs issued by Chinese importers.

The industry has urged the union government to take up the matter with the Chinese government immediately failing which the Indian industry would land in troubled waters. They said the Indian government should send a high-level delegation for resolving the crisis. Already, the Indian ambassador to China has met Chinese officials and briefed them about the situation, they added.

They also said that the industry's hope to cash in on the Christmas demand from the US-European market islikely to go haywire as these markets were already flooded with cheap imports from other major marine exporting countries including south-east Asia. They said following over 50 per cent erosion in the value of the currencies of most south-east Asian nations it was difficult for India to compete with them in US-EC markets.

It may be recalled that following the ban imposed by the European Union on account of quality standards, Indian seafood industry has found China as a haven for exporting low-value fish and fish products. During the last fiscal China has emerged as the second largest market for Indian marine exports. Out of the total Rs 4,697 crore export earning during the last fiscal exports to China stood at Rs 603 crore, second only to Japan.

Following the rapid growth in exports to Japan and China the Indian seafood industry is toying with the idea of increasing the total turnover of the industry from the current $1.3 billion level to $ 2 billion mark by the turn of the century. However, with theChinese dream turning sour the industry is likely to miss this target unless the government resolve the issue on a war footing, industry sources added.