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If the country has to take advantage of its 8,000-km coastline and 20 lakh sq km of exclusive economic zone, financial institutions should help the fisheries sector in buying vessels and promoting aquaculture, said Commerce Minister Anand Sharma.
“The idea is to create an ecosystem that will encourage farming of shrimps, technology adoption, and promotion of exports,” he said inaugurating the 19th edition of the India International Seafood Show. He also launched a book chronicling the contribution of Marine Products Export Development authority over the last four decades on the occasion.
Accent on aquaculture Sharma said cluster farming initiatives by the MPEDA in the four Southern States have led to “an exponential growth in production and exports.”
He said furthering the growth shown by these coastal States means loans to establish cold storage facilities for value-addition.
Value-added exports in India’s seafood exports basket are only 17 per cent and they could increase in the wake of higher financing to the seafood processing industry.
Exports in 2014-15 will touch the $5-billion mark, he said, adding that the target of $10 billion by 2020 is also achievable.
The chief contributor to exports has been the network of testing laboratories set up by MPEDA to clear residue-free shrimps, a sought-after species in the West.
These quarantines have helped bring in special brood stock, not only the Vannamei shrimp, but also the native Black Tiger variety.
The multiplication centre set up in Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu, for Black Tiger shrimp is another step aimed at grabbing a higher share in the exports market, he said.
Avertano Furtado, Goa’s Fisheries Minister, said more investments are now being directed towards seafood processing facilities, and aquaculture. He said that Goa, with only 14 seafood processing units, achieved a five per cent increase in value-added seafood exports during 2012-13. They are bound to go up with more investments.
Tamil Nadu exported Rs 3,332 crore worth seafood last fiscal, with 247 exporters and 42 processing units.
It has spent Rs 245 crore in the last two years to support fishermen into deep-sea fishing, especially the tuna, said State Fisheries Minister K.A. Jaypal.
bharani.v@thehindu.co.in
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