Marine authority eyes $4 bn seafood exports

In a bid to increase the share of value-added products in marine exports from the country, the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) requires nearly Rs 4,000 crore investments during the 11th Plan period.

MPEDA envisages $4 billion seafood exports from the country by the end of the 11th Plan period from the existing $1.6 billion.

For this, the marine body had identified the enhancing of value-added products' share in seafood exports as one of the thrust areas, MPEDA Chairman G Mohan Kumar told mediapersons here.

"At present, the share of value-added products in our total marine exports is below 10 per cent. With the seafood industry's help, MPEDA is taking several measures to raise this to 75 per cent by the end of the 11th Plan. To reach the ambitious goal, the industry needs Rs 3,600 crore," he said.

The existing processing plants should be upgraded according to the needs. For this, the industry requires about Rs 600 crore as capital investment and Rs 3,000 crore as working capital, Kumar said. He said negotiations with several banks for securing working capital were on.

Calling upon industry people to invest some funds, Kumar said MPEDA, too, would chip in for upgrading the processing plants.

"Our endeavour is to raise marine products exports to 10 lakh tonne over the next four-five years from the present 2 lakh tonne level," he said.

To increase marine production in the country, it was needed to encourage Tuna fishing in a big way by providing huge amounts of subsidies for conversion of the existing fishing vessels, Kumar added.

MPEDA is in talks with coastal states for increasing the aqua culture area, as well.

"For optimum utilisation of the capacity of processing plants in the country, we are initiating steps to convert India into a processing hub by allowing imports of marine products. After processing, they could be exported to other courtiers," the MPEDA chief said.

Besides, the authority is encouraging fish culture of crab and three-four species of fin, which have high export potential. "We are confident of reaching the goal of $4 billion mark exports with all these efforts by the end of this plan period," he said.

Cage culture is another area capable of raising fish production in the country.