VIJAYAWADA: Marine exports from the State have managed to avoid the impact of coronavirus outbreak. Significant profits registered in the first two quarters of the current financial year compared to the corresponding period last fiscal, have been cited as the reason for no loss in the overall exports by the Marine Products Export Development Authority and the Fisheries Department.
Speaking to TNIE, Fisheries Commissioner G Soma Sekharam said, “As per the details furnished by MPEDA, seafood exports to China from the State was valued at `1,045 crore in 2018-19, whereas only in the first two quarters of 2019-20, there has been an increase by 384.53 per cent.”
“We are yet to get data for the third quarter. So we can conclude that even if China closes down its market, any financial loss to the State is unlikely as the profits in the first two quarters are sufficient to balance for the lost period,” he said.
“Seafood exports are unlikely to be impacted by Covid-19 as 46 per cent increase in terms of quantity and 75 per cent in terms of value (at national-level) have been observed between April and December 2019.”
Explaining further, Fisheries Joint Director Shankar said, “Exports to China have shown the maximum increase. In the first quarter of 2018-19, the State exported 7,190 tonnes of seafood, which increased to 33,992 tonnes in the same period of 2019-20, which is an increase of 500 per cent (app). Overall, AP exported 1,76,051 tonnes of seafood from April to September 2019 as against 1,67,547 tonnes in the corresponding period of 2018-19.”
However, the country-wide export of shrimps, which is the most exported product to China from India, has gone down as China and Australia have imposed a ban due to prevalence of white spot syndrome virus in culture shrimp.
This has resulted in decline of its exports in terms of quantity by 12.49 per cent at national level between April and December of the current financial year.On the contrary, the export of frozen shrimp from Andhra Pradesh has increased by 11,212 tonnes in the same period, he added.