The Hindu Business Line : International seafood show from tomorrow

The biennial India International Seafood Show 2008, jointly organised by the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA), the Union Ministry of Commerce and Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI) is to kick off at Kochi from Friday. The three-day event, which has attracted delegates from 15 countries, is expected to bring together Indian seafood processors, exporters and overseas buyers.

Foreign delegates

The event which expects 500 delegates including 60 foreign delegates and an exhibition of close to 100 stalls will be inaugurated by the Union Minister of State for Commerce, Mr Jairam Ramesh. Nine overseas exhibitors have booked their stalls at the event. Addressing a press conference, Mr Mohan Kumar, Chairman, MPEDA, said the fair was being held when the seafood industry in India has touched an all-time high exports of $1.86 billion.

19% Fall in exports

However, several issues have cropped such as the appreciation of the rupee, acute shortage of raw material, adverse market situations particularly in the US with its anti-dumping duty on Indian shrimp, which are to be deliberated and corrective measures suggested at the seafood show.

The latest export figures for April-December 2007 show that all is not well in the Indian seafood export sector. The volume of exports for the first nine months of the current fiscal was down by 19 per cent while value realisation in rupees fell by 14 per cent. This was primarily because of the poor fish landings from the East and West coasts. The only segment which countered the slump in a significant manner was tuna exports which increased by 71 per cent in quantity.

Mr Anwar Hashim, President of SEAI said that a major avenue to overcome the slump was to form joint ventures with importing countries such as Japan. Joint ventures between Japanese companies and producing countries such as Thailand, Vietnam etc. are already operational.

The invariable demand for home country joint venture exports have dimmed the prospects of similar exports from India to Japan.

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