Aquaculture for all

Record Revenue from Indian Seafood Exports

Sustainability Economics +3 more

INDIA - India exported a record one million tonnes of sea food in the last fiscal year, the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) has said.

These exports fetched a foreign exchange value of US $5.5 billion, reported the Business Standard.

"We have crossed the one million metric tonne mark in terms of quantity of sea food exports. During the financial year 2014-15, exports of marine products reached an all-time high of $5,511.12 million," MPEDA Chairman Leena Nair announced in a press conference.

She added that sea food exports crossed all previous records in quantity, rupee value and USD terms.

"Exports aggregated to 10,51,243 metric tonnes valued at Rs 33441.61 crores (334.4 billion). Compared to the previous year, seafood exports recorded a growth of 6.86 per cent in quantity, 10.69 per cent in rupee and 10.05 per cent growth in USD earnings," Ms Nair said.

She said that MPEDA envisages export of marine products worth $6.6 billion during the year 2015-16.

"Increased production of L Vannamei shrimp, diversification of aquaculture species, particularly of Tilapia and Mangrove crab, quality control measures and increase in infrastructure facilities for production of value added items are expected to help in achieving this target," she said.

MPEDA said the growth in the last fiscal may be viewed under the prevailing international market situations.

The depreciation of the Euro, weaker economic condition in China, devaluation of Yen, depreciation of the Indian Rupee, and an improvement in supply conditions in South East Asian countries in comparison to previous year have all resulted in a continuous drop in prices of shrimp, a principle commodity of Indian seafood export basket, MPEDA said.

The figure released by MPEDA showed that USA is the largest market for Indian seafood products with a share of 26.46 per cent in terms of dollars, followed by South East Asia at 25.71 per cent.

European Union accounts for 20.08 per cent and Japan 9.11 per cent. Exports to China have decreased drastically due to "the weaker economic condition in China".

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