The Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) will spell out an action plan for mass breeding of ornamental fish as part of its ambitious policy to make a foray into the 5.65 billion dollar global fresh water ornamental fish market. MPEDA also plans to set up a multi-crore agro-technology park here as a part of the venture, MPEDA sources in Kochi said. In the absence of a concrete policy to tap the multi-billion dollar fresh water ornamental fish market, the country was losing huge amount of foreign exchange every year. While Singapore's contribution in this huge market was over 24 per cent, India's export was only a negligible Rs 1.58 crore in the last fiscal.

The major reason that stymied Indian exports was the lack of a comprehensive policy on ornamental fish export, the sources said. For formulating an action plan, the authority had set up a national committee on ornamental fishes to study various aspects of the issue. The committee had so farvisited the North Eastern states and Tamil Nadu to conduct studies. They would visit Kerala, Karnataka, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh within six months, the sources said.

Gold drifts down in Europe

Gold drifted lower in early European trade on Friday in a quiet market awaiting next Tuesday's British auction of 25 tonnes of gold reserves, dealers said. Spot gold was last quoted down at $255.35/$255.75 a troy ounce against Thursday's New York close of $256.25/$256.75. Prices edged lower in Asia overnight as the dollar advanced against the yen, making gold more expensive in local currency terms in Japan. Dealers said gold held good support at the $255.00 level but said bullion should remain in its recent $255.00 to $258.00 range ahead of the auction.

``With the Bank of England auction next week on Tuesday, gold could face further volatility on Friday. Once the second auction is over, gold would certainly benefit from any good news by the IMF and some good support could be found,'' aSwiss dealer said. Dealers and analysts expect gold to test new 20-year lows after the September 21 auction, the second in a series of sales which will see the UK reduce its gold reserves from 715 tonnes to 300. Gold dropped sharply after the first UK auction on July 6 as dealers reversed their initially positive reaction to news that bids exceeded supply by more than five times.

Sica allows trading in NTSD

The South India Cotton association (SICA) has permitted trading in non-transferable specific delivery contracts (NTSD) for the purchase or sale of all varieties of cotton of 1999-2000 season, grown in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. In a press release on Friday, SICA said that with the approval of Forward Markets Commission, Mumbai, the purchase or sale of cotton from Bijapur, Bellary and Belgaum districts of Karnataka except Jayadhar, Laxmi and Virnar varieties, have also been allowed. All the varieties grown in Andhra Pradesh and Shankar-4 to Shankar-8 and CJ-73 varieties grownin Gujarat had also been permitted for NTSD with effect from September 14, SICA said.