The Hindu Business Line : `Organic aquaculture key to growth'

WITH increasing purchasing power and heightened ecological awareness, the demand for organic aquaculture products by major importing countries such as the US and Europe have been on the rise.

For India, if the marine shrimp exporter can get 25 per cent of their products labelled as organic, it will fetch an additional Rs 3,000 crore, virtually doubling the present export realisation of Rs 3,500 crore from shrimp, scientists at the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute said. Though aquaculture currently contributes to around 30 per cent of the total shrimp trade of the world, Mr C. Ramchandran and Mr R. Sathiadhas of CMFRI said, "The real future development lies in shrimp farming, especially produced the organic way."

Citing the sale of organic salmon as a case in point, they said that its sales in Europe had shot up forty-fold between 1997 and 2000. Further facilitating the export potential, many countries, including the European Union have formulated specific standards and guidelines for organic fish products, distinct from organic farm products. The decision of the US Congress to allow labelling of wild seafood as organic is another such initiative.

Organic fish farming is a new concept and is still in the early stages of development and strives to re-establish a proper balance in aquaculture systems, for the benefit of the fish, the environment and the consumers. And organic fish farming systems and standards that define them are likely to witness considerable evolution and refinement over the years.

However, for the moment, the scientists said that three basic issues have to be conformed with - for setting up standards. Nutrient cycling within closed systems, following the law of return, is a central organic principle. Also, the use of pesticides, dyes and antibiotics, which are conventionally used in aquaculture are not to be permitted.

Water, which is both soil and air to the fish, is the critical issue, the quality of which plays an important role in the quality of the product. Standards must be set up on the quality and purity of the incoming and outgoing water in terms of environmental impact.

The feed, consisting of fishmeal, fish oil, cereal-based products, vitamins and minerals etc. should be organically produced. The scientists said that it is not an easy task to bring down and remove the level of organo-chlorine pollutants in the marine fish that are used for conversion into fishmeal. National standards would have to be set up which the farmers and exporters who seek eco-labelling will have to abide by.

On the positive side, the scientists said that making a transition to organic systems, especially in extensive system of shrimp farming would be easy. Also, the technology for production of low-cost organic feeds is available, and cited the case of the shrimp feed, Mahima, developed by CMFRI. Large and comparatively clean and pollution-free water bodies are also available. The natural seed availability for the organic programme is still not in peril.

But the institutional support system in the fisheries sector, for research and trade in general should be made capable to tackle the transitional challenges. There is a surging global market waiting for such a product, valued at over $20 billion. Over 90 per cent of this global organic market comes from India's traditional marine export market of US and Europe. And, demand for organic products from several of these countries have been growing between 20 to 30 per cent.

This represents an interesting combination of product and market diversification, whose rationale is based upon the consumer perceiving value to be added to the product through its differentiated, more natural but controlled production regime.

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