The announcement of an increase in refrigerated (or reefer) container charges has been an unpleasant surprise for the already troubled seafood export sector. Shipping companies have announced an increase of $1,500 for each such container from January 1, for all destinations; seafood is among the products covered.
Sources at leading shipping companies told Business Standard that refrigerated containers were almost four times as costly to build as dry ones, with associated expenses putting pressure on cost.
All seafood cargo goes in reefer containers. According to a spokesperson of a Goa-based export house, those on the west coast — particularly Mangalore, Goa, Ratnagiri, Mumbai and Gujarat -- will suffer more, as they were mostly dependent on lower-value fish such as mackerel, sardines, reef cods, scads and so on.
This has come even as most exporters along the west coast face a severe problem on availability. The main fishing season has reduced to barely six weeks in a year and overheads of every unit have doubled in the past three years, due to the rising cost of labor, power and fuel, he said. On the east coast, the export is mainly of high-value items such as shrimp, and the volume shipped is less compared to low-value items.
“Sardines might earn or lose Rs 50,000 on a 40 ft container. How can we bear an increase of $1,500, equivalent to Rs 83,000 in freight charges?” said a source.
There has already been a setback on export of seafood items in April–September, due to the global recession, especially in the Euro zone, plus a slowing of shrimp export to Japan. Export in the first half of the financial year were 349,009 tonnes, valued at Rs 7,980 crore, equivalent to $1,481 million. This was a decline of 6.9 per cent in quantity and 16.6 per cent in dollar earnings, though a nominal growth of 0.5 per cent in rupee terms.
