Seafood industry has a rosy future, says MPEDA chief

A bright future lies ahead for the country’s seafood industry and marine product exports are likely to go up by 20 per cent during the current year, says Marine Products Export Development Authority Chairman A Jayathilak.

Jayathilak, who is here in connection with the India International Seafood Show, which begins on Friday, said on Wednesday that the theme of the IISS-2016 would be safe and sustainable aquaculture.

He said Visakhapatnam had been chosen for the biennial event as Andhra Pradesh is the leading shrimp exporter from the country and Visakhapatnam port accounts for the bulk of them.

He said the importance of Visakhapatnam — the largest exporting centre in the country — would be highlighted during the event. He added that MPEDA was hoping to increase the export turnover to $5.6 billion during the current year due to the thrust on aquaculture diversification, improvement of quality and production infrastructure.

Jayathilak said MPEDA was expecting a reverse in the decline witnessed last fiscal year when total seafood exports stood at 945,892 tonnes worth $4.7 billion. He said India had a huge potential yet to be fully exploited.

The MPEDA chief said the aquatic disease surveillance programme and aquatic quarantine facility (AQF) at Chennai would go a long way.

At AQF, all imported brooders/post-larvae of Litopeneaus Vannamei (Pacific whiteleg shrimp) undergo a detailed disease check for shrimp diseases and other potential shrimp pathogens.

Only disease-free products are allowed for further breeding/rearing in the country.

Due to the stringent protocols followed at AQF, while competitors like China, Thailand and Philippines suffered from AHPND, a severe shrimp disease, India was not affected at all, said Jayathilak.

Recommending the cluster farming approach, he said: “We have also benefited tremendously by adopting CFA. More than 90 per cent of the shrimp farmers in India are small or marginal farmers (less than 5 ha in area). New trends have emerged in production and marketing such as certification, traceability and eco-labelling.”