KOCHI: Overall seafood exports increased to `19,652.74 crore in the April-October 2014 period from `16,952.19 crore in the same period of last year.
However, the volume of exports decreased slightly by 0.81 percent to 549,142 mt during the period from 553,652 mt last year. The unit value increased 17.4 percent to $6.06 per kg from from $5.15 per kg.
“The growth is mainly attributed to the increased production and export of L vannamei shrimp,” a statement from the Marine Products Export Development Authority said.
Frozen shrimp has emerged as the principle item of export in the seafood basket, both in terms of quantity and foreign earnings.
In value terms, it accounted for 73.14 per cent of the total earnings. In quantity terms, the share of frozen shrimp was 39.73 per cent, followed by frozen fish, frozen cuttlefish and frozen squid.
During the period, the US was the largest buyer of Indian seafood, followed by South East Asia, European Union, Japan, Middle East and China.