'India’s seafood exports likely to fall marginally'

Deepak Kumar | The Dollar Business

India’s seafood exports are expected to witness a marginal decline of up to 4% in the current financial year, an industry expert has said. “Seafood exports value is already coming down because of several reasons. Recent fluctuations in aquaculture prices and global slowdown have affected India’s overall seafood exports. There could be around 3-4% decline in its overall exports as compared to the previous financial year,” Kenny Thomas, Vice President of Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI), told The Dollar Business. During the last financial year, the country’s seafood exports reached an all-time high to 1.05 million tonnes worth $5.51 billion, up about 6% from the shipment value of the previous fiscal. The growth was witnessed despite a slowdown in shrimp prices during the last quarter of 2014-15. Despite a drop in the seafood prices in the last financial year, frozen shrimps exports remained at the first position, moving up 34.04% (in quantity) and 67.07% (in value) of the total seafood shipment. The country’s total seafood exports reached 1.05 million tonnes during the last fiscal. The United States remained the biggest consumer market, accounting for 26% of the country’s total seafood exports, followed by Southeast Asia. “The US is by far our biggest seafood market, followed by the European Union and Canada. Last 2-3 months had been good for several Indian seafood exporting companies as they exported about 1,000 tonnes to the US. There is optimism in the industry that we might catch up with the exports figure of 2013-14 due to upcoming festive seasons in the EU and the US,” Thomas said. In the last decade, India’s seafood exports have grown at 14.06% in terms of US dollars, 17.54% in rupee term, and 8.58% in volumes. Fish is the country’s second largest export item, accounting for 29.44% in terms of quantity and 11.24% in terms of value. Exports to the US had grown by 16.94% in quantity and 13.39% in value while to China it has decreased substantially. India is currently the world’s third largest fish exporting nation, accounting for 4.8% of global fish exports, behind only China (12.6%) and Norway (9.6%).  

September 26, 2015 | 1:22pm IST.