Seafood exports up 8% on rise in shrimp demand

With aquaculture shrimp exports back on track, Indian seafood exports have registered good growth in the first seven months of the current financial year that ends in March.

In a reversal of trend, US is back as the prominent consumer of Indian shrimps and has helped in recording growth even as exports to some markets like the European Union have declined.

Shrimp exports for the current financial year, as compared to the same period of last financial year, were higher by 8% in volume, 27% in rupee terms and 34% in dollar terms.

Shrimp exports, which were down for some years due to anti-dumping duty in US, economic slow down, and strict controls by Japan and EU have bounced back. Frozen shrimps are the mainstay of Indian seafood exports and constitute almost half of the total exports. Purchase by Japan, who are known to be very quality-conscious, has also moved up during the period.

Value realisation during the April-October period is up by 15 % as compared with the same period of last financial year and reached almost 65 % of the revenue realised during entire 2009-10. Exports in 2009-10 aggregated 663,603 tonne valued at Rs 9921.46 crore ($ 2105.60 million).

Exports during the seven month period reached 3,70,737 tonne valued at Rs 6482.59 crore ($1421.81 million) as against 358,277 tonne valued at Rs 5,617.69 crore ($ 1169.88 million) during the comparable period of last fiscal, Marine Exports Product Development Authority (MPEDA) sources said.

MPEDA hopes to achieve $2.5 billion worth of exports during the current financial year with a 15% increase in volume. Export to the US market has increased by 44% in volume terms, while earnings in rupee terms rose by 86.37%. The increase in dollar value was even higher at 96.31%.

Production and export of vannamei shrimps has also helped, MPEDA sources said. Farming of aquaculture vannamei shrimps helped in giving a competitive edge to Indian exporters. India started commercial farming of vannamei a year back in nearly 2,000 hectares and hopes to export 30,000 tonne in the current financial year.

Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI) officials said that better landing has helped in higher exports. Landings of cuttle fish, squid and black tiger prawns have been higher helping in lowering the domestic price. This has helped India becoming competitive in the global markets.