Skilled professionals in the marine sector will vie for top honours in a first-of-its-kind National Skill Olympiad in Chennai on July 1. The Olympiad aims to enhance skills in seafood value addition, build a trained professional pool and raise awareness on quality.

The grand finale of the Olympiad, launched by the Marine Products Export Development Authority will be held as part of Seafood Expo Bharat 2025.

As a prelude to the event, MPEDA had conducted multiple rounds of skill tests for trained professionals across the East and West coasts of India to assess the practical skills acquired during training. Five winners each from the West Coast and East Coast were selected for the semi-final to be held at Chennai on June 30. The top four performers from the semi-final will compete in the finale of the Skill Olympiad on Seafood Value Addition.

The winners of the final round will be awarded cash prizes and mementos, with ₹1,00,000 for first place, ₹75,000 for second, ₹50,000 for third and ₹25,000 as a consolation prize for the fourth position.

MPEDA Chairman D V Swamy said there are plans to organise the Olympiad annually to strengthen India’s seafood value addition sector and make the country a global hub for value-added seafood exports.

MPEDA has trained over 2,500 workers in seafood value addition through hands-on training programmes conducted by both national and international experts. Around 4,000 workers are currently engaged in the value addition sector across India.

Seafood processing professionals have been trained in preparing value-added products having high demand in the international market. These include different categories of shrimp, cephalopods and fish products such as Nobashi (stretched shrimp), breaded Nobashi shrimp, breaded butterfly shrimp, cooked PDTO shrimp, butterfly sushi shrimp, marinated shrimp skewers, breaded fish fillets, fish fingers, squid cut rings, breaded squid rings and mixed seafood skewers.

At present, India has 650 processing units with a processing capacity of more than 35,000 tonnes. Over 100 of these units are involved in the processing of high-end value-added seafood products, contributing to 10 per cent ($0.74 billion) of total seafood exports to the tune of $7.44 billion in FY25.

Published on June 29, 2025