Indian, Indonesian traders to sign pact

The Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI) will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with its Indonesian counterpart, The Indonesian Fishery Product Processing and Marketing Association (Ifpma) for augmenting trade in fishery-related business.

According to sources, the MoU would be signed by March 2012. It is likely that Indonesia would import fish items, especially shrimp from India in large volumes. The former is also expected to invest in the latter in value-added products. This indicates trade barriers between the two countries would be reduced.

A high-level Indonesian delegation, lead by Bambang Widigdo, chairman, Indonesian Shrimp Commission, and Thomas Darmawan, president, Ifpma, had visited recently and held discussions with SEAI office bearers and the Marine Products Export Development Authority’s chairman. The delegation also visited several aquaculture farms and export processing centres in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Ifpma had recently signed a similar MoU with China Aquatic Products Processing and Marketing Association in Shanghai.

The MoU is a follow-up to an agreement signed by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and the Indonesian Ministry of Trade on the establishment of a Biennial Trade Ministers Forum. The main objective of the forum is to enhance bilateral trade to $25 billion by 2015.

Indonesia requires shrimp from India for meeting their export requirement and it is likely that a large volume of shrimp would go to that country in future. The delegation also said India should play a key role in uniting seafood exporting countries of southeast Asia. These countries supply around 85 per cent of the total seafood requirement of the world.

But, exporters of these countries are facing serious problems in exporting to the EU zone. The EU nations are imposing stringent measures on the quality and are united in negotiating with exporters on price, quality, etc.

So, the delegation proposed India to take the lead to sort out the issues with EU regarding quality standard, price, etc.