The Hindu Business Line : Seafood exporters launch drive to fight dumping suit

THE petition filed by the Southern Shrimp Alliance, a loose confederation of domestic shrimp producers and industry interest of the US, has said India is exporting shrimp to the US at below the cost of production prices and at rates less than what it exports to the Japanese markets.

Having gone through a copy of the petition, sources in the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) said it purportedly provides figures for the cost of production in India and the export prices at the US ports, based on which the SSA has demanded that anti-dumping duty ranging between 100 per cent and 130 per cent be imposed on Indian shrimp imports. The petition was filed at the US International Trade Commission (ITC) on December 31.

"There is no veracity to this argument and there is no way that the Indian exporter can bear a loss of close to $10 loss per kg to sustain his exports to the US markets", Mr Jose Cyriac, Chairman of MPEDA, told Business Line.

To counter the claims made in the petition, the Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI) has begun a data collection drive to provide the true cost of production and export prices and thus fight the anti-dumping suit filed against the Indian shrimp exporters.

The exporters will file their reply after January 20 when the US ITC will decide whether the petition filed by SSA reflects a sufficient, qualified representation of the domestic US producers' complaints.

SEAI has begun collecting data from the top 50 Indian exporters to the US on cost details, raw material prices, production costs, export prices etc. The Indian defence would attempt to prove that there is there is no price manipulation in the export transactions and that there is no dumping of the product at below the cost of production prices. The data collected was also expected to prove that there is no Government subsidy in this export operation, sources in SEAI said.

Shrimp exports to the US comprise both sea caught shrimp mainly from the West coast and the farmed shrimp from the East coast, mainly from the coast of Andhra Pradesh. While the volume of shrimp exports from the West coast to the US is substantially higher, the value realisation from the East coast is higher.

On an average, one container of shrimp export from the East coast to the US realised close to Rs 1.5 crore, while exports from the West coast fetched only Rs 30 lakh, sources in the trade said.

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