KOCHI: Registering considerable growth, India’s seafood exports stood at 2,51,735 tonnes valued at `9,066 crore in the first quarter of the current fiscal, according to the statistics released by the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA). The sector registered growth both in terms of the quantity exported and the foreign exchange earned. The exports during the same period last year were 2,01,223 tonne worth $1.17 billion.
USA and South East Asia retained their position as the major importers of India’s seafood, followed by the European Union (EU) and Japan, while the demand from China saw a healthy surge during the period. Frozen shrimp continued to be the top export item of marine products basket, accounting for a share of 50.66 per cent in quantity and 74.90 per cent of the total earnings in dollar terms. Shrimp exports increased by 20.87 per cent in terms of quantity and 21.64 per cent in dollar terms.
USA imported 54,344 tonnes of Indian seafood worth $499.28 million, accounting for a share of 35.05 per cent in dollar terms, while export to that country registered a growth of 39.56 per cent.
South East Asia continued to be the second largest destination of India’s marine products, with a share of 31.26 per cent in dollar terms, followed by the EU (14.70 per cent), Japan (6.68 per cent), West Asia (3.47 per cent) and China (3.06 per cent). Overall, exports to South East Asia increased by 50.37 per cent in quantity.
Frozen squid is the second largest export item, accounting for 7.82 per cent in quantity and 5.81 per cent in dollar earnings, registering a growth of 40.25 per cent. Besides frozen shrimp and frozen squid, India’s major seafood product is frozen fish, which registered a growth of 24.96 per cent, 17.55 per cent and 21.75 per cent in terms of quantity, rupee value and dollar earnings, respectively.
“Healthy harvests of shrimp, reduction in the rejection rate by the EU countries, sustained measures to ensure quality and improved infrastructure facilities for production of value-added products are chiefly responsible for India’s surge seafood exports,” said MPEDA chairman A Jayathilak, “What is satisfying is growth in exports was achieved in the face of continued uncertainties in the global seafood trade," he said.
Import sector
Indian ports handled a total marine cargo of 2,51,735 tonnes valued at `9066.06 crore the first quarter of 2017-18 fiscal as compared to 2,01,223 tonnes worth `7699.61 crore in the corresponding period last year. Vizag, which handled marine cargo of 43,315 tonnes worth `2,481.03 crore, is the leading port, followed by Krishnapatnam (19,917 tonnes, `1096.33 cr), Kochi (29,630 tonnes, `1,027.39 cr) and Kolkata (21,433 tonnes, `993.74 crore).