KOCHI: India exported a record one million tonnes of sea food fetching a foreign exchange of USD 5.5 billion in the last fiscal, the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) said on Thursday.
“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 USD 5,511.12 million,” MPEDA Chairman Leena Nair announced in a press conference here.
She added, sea food exports crossed all previous records in quantity, rupee value and USD terms.
“Exports aggregated to 10,51,243 mt valued at Rs 33441.61 crores. 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,” Nair said.
She said MPEDA envisages export of marine products worth USD 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 Indian Rupee, improvement in supply conditions in South East Asian countries in comparison to previous year has resulted in continuous drop in prices of shrimp, a principle commodity of Indian seafood export basket, it 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 USD, followed by South East Asia at 25.71 per cent. European Union accounts for 20.08 per cent and Japan 9.11 per cent. Export to China has decreased drastically due to “the weaker economic condition in China”.–PTI
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