Value addition to marine products is critical if India is to compete in the international market, as at present mostly only raw material is being exported, according to experts.

They were speaking at a one-day workshop organised by the Marine Products Exports Development Authority (MPEDA) here on Thursday.

T. Dola Sankar, Director (Marketing), MPEDA, said only 6 per cent value addition is being done in India, in comparison with 65 per cent in Thailand. "We have to cover lots of ground. We have made very little headway in the past decade. AP leads in marine exports and AP exporters and processors should take the initiative in the matter."

He spoke about the various schemes launched by MPEDA and the Centre to help exporters and processors.

V. Padmanabham, national president of the Seafood Exporters' Association of India (SEAI), said value addition should be done on a large scale and the bigger exporters should take the lead, making use of government schemes. He also urged the Union Government to accord agriculture status to fisheries, a long-pending demand, and to address other pending issues.

P. Paul Pandian, the Development Commissioner (Fisheries) in the Agriculture Ministry, said the NDA Government had allocated Rs 3,000 crore under the umbrella blue revolution scheme to assist the marine sector and it should be used by exporters and processors of marine food. He said the government had also set up a Fisheries Infrastructure Development Fund with Rs 7,500 crore to assist them. Guidelines were being formulated to release funds to various units, he added.

Y.S Prasad, CEO of the AP Food Processing Society, a state government organisation, said the AP government had released Rs 160-crore subsidy to 30 new processing units in the sector during the past four years, adding capacity of 1.5 lakh tonnes. At present, he said, there are 67 marine processing units in the state. Two mega aqua parks were also coming up in the state.

G. Rathinaraj, Executive Director of the National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB), Hyderabad, spoke about the need to introduce ready-to-cook and ready-to-eat seafood in both the domestic and export market.

Venkat R. Nekkanti of Nekkanti Seafoods, spoke about the mega aqua park being set up near Krishnapatnam port in Nellore district.

Abhijit Talekar of Gadre Marine Exports, and Dilip Parasnis of Forstar Frozen Foods, spoke about product development and value addition. Alex K Thomas spoke about using digital platforms to satiate consumer preferences.

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