The government has launched e-SANTA, an end-to-end electronic trade platform, between aquaculture farmers and exporters. The platform is aimed at enabling farmers get better price by eliminating middlemen and helping exporters directly purchase quality products from farmers enhancing traceability, a key factor in international trade.

“e-SANTA will raise income, lifestyle, self-reliance, quality levels, traceability, and provide new options for our aqua farmers,” Commerce & Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said at the virtual inauguration of the portal.

The platform will revolutionise traditional aqua farming by providing cashless, contactless and paperless electronic trade platform between farmers and exporters, Goyal said. “e-SANTA can become a tool to advertise collectively the kind of products the buyers, fishermen and fish producing organisations are harvesting, so people in India and internationally can know what is available and in the future it can become an auction platform”, he added.

The platform is available in many languages, which will help the local population.

Payment mechanism

Detailed specification of each product listing is provided on the platform and it is backed by an end to end electronic payment system with National Centre for Sustainable Aquaculture (NaCSA) as an escrow agent. “After crop listing and online negotiation, a deal is struck, advance payment is made and an estimated invoice is generated,” an official release stated.

Once the harvest date is fixed, the buyer goes to the farm gate and the produce is harvested in his presence. After completion of harvest, the final count and quantity of material is verified, the final amount is decided and delivery challan is issued. Once the material reaches the processing plant, the final invoice is generated and the exporter makes the balance payment. This payment is reflected in the escrow account. NaCSA verifies it and accordingly releases the payment to farmers, the release added.

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