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Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan has called for efforts to attract foreign direct investment to the marine sector for increasing employment opportunities and boosting the country’s seafood exports.
Inaugurating the 22nd International Seafood Show here, the Governor expressed confidence that India would be able to increase its share in global seafood trade from the present 4.1 per cent to 6.7 per cent by 2030 by increasing production, value addition and diversification.
Highlighting the importance of seafood, the Governor pointed out that 40 per cent of the global population live within 200 km from sea coasts and 12 of the 15 mega cities are on the coasts. In India alone, about 40.5 million people are involved in the fisheries sector, which also contributed one per cent to the GDP, he noted.
1,500 delegates
Over 1,500 delegates, 50 of them from 12 foreign countries, are attending the event. They will deliberate on policies and actionable roadmaps to achieve the country’s marine products export target of $10 billion by 2022.
‘Blue Revolution: Beyond Production to Value Addition’ is the theme of the biennial event being jointly organised by the Marine Products Export Development Authority and the Seafood Export Association of India.
KS Srinivas, Chairman, Mpeda, talked of a three-pronged strategy to promote the sector, increase productivity, expand area under cultivation and diversification of species. An increase of productivity from the present five tonnes per hectare to 10 tonnes is desired. A vision document in this regard has been submitted to the government.
Improvement in infrastructure, focus on value addition, brand promotion and increase in the number of trade promotion offices would go a long way in achieving the trade target, he said.
Jagdish V Fofandi, national president, SEAI, said the sector was hit this year by natural calamities.
On the occasion, MPEDA launched an online certification scheme ‘Shaphari’ for the farmers to ensure quality produce, bereft of antibiotics that hindered exports.
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