New Delhi: India aims to increase its seafood exports to Rs one lakh crore in the next two years from Rs 64,000 crore in FY23 by increasing its processing capacity and shifting to higher value-added products, an official said Wednesday.
New Delhi is the largest supplier of seafood, particularly frozen shrimps, to the US and Indian shrimp exporters follow a robust regulatory and safety regime, the official said. There are around 1 lakh shrimp farms in India most of which are in Andhra Pradesh.
Refuting reports of poor working conditions and safety standards, the official said that India’s 548 seafood units are regularly inspected and monitored by various government agencies.
All units are registered with MPEDA (Marine Products Export Development Authority) and FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India), and approved by the Export Inspection Council as mandated by the law. Additionally, 46 independent pre-processing units are registered by the authority.
These units follow world-class quality and standards, and the major export destinations are developed nations, the official said, adding that these are wrong and baseless.
In 2022-23, Indian shrimp had 40% share of the US market from 21% in FY15.
Indian shrimp has replaced shrimp from Ecuador and Vietnam in some markets, the official said. A big chunk of Indian shrimp that makes its way to the US gets processed in some Latin American nations. India wants to do that processing locally to capture the higher value of exports.
