Indian Shrimp Export Peak

The huge growth in production Andhra Pradesh and other States on the East Coast experienced, boosted exports of vannamei to almost double in quantity compared with the first three quarters of the last fiscal year to 134,000 tonnes vs. 69,000 tonnes.

In dollar terms, the jump was an astounding 173 per cent over the previous fiscal’s first three quarters, that is to say, from USD 540 million to USD 1,474 million.

The Marine Products Export Promotion Authority (MPDA) reported that in the first nine months of the current fiscal year (April 2013-March 2014) seafood exports from India reached a record peak of USD 3.66 billion, largely driven by sales of frozen shrimp.

The frozen shrimp accounted for one third of exports of fishery products, while in dollar terms, the percentage was 65 per cent: 229,010 tonnes were exported for USD 2.39 billion.

Vannamei variety alone constituted 81 per cent of in terms of quantity of the total exports of shrimp.

This upsurge, according to Anwar Hashim, a leading exporter and former president of Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI), was due to two major factors; a serious fall in the production and export of shrimp from South East Asian countries owing to diseases, and the lowering of the countervailing duty (CVD) on Indian shrimp in the USA.

The production in South East Asian countries had been severely impacted by the spread of the Early Mortality Syndrome (EMS). The supply from Thailand, the world’s second largest shrimp producer, nearly fell to a half from its normal production of 500,000 tonnes per year, The Hindu reported.

Besides other leading producers like Vietnam and Malaysia have been badly hit as well. Their processing plants started to depend on import from India in order to meet their commitments with European and US importers. Therefore, India was presented with a chance to enhance its exports.Likewise, China and Taiwan turned to India to get resources mainly for re-export.

This favourable context encouraged Indian new farmers in the States on the East Coast to venture into vannamei.USA is the largest import market with a 51.24 per cent share of the total Indian shrimp exports. South East Asian countries account for the 16.10 per cent, followed by the EU with 15.82 per cent, and Japan with 4.94 per cent.

Source:- fis.com