By Devleena Bhattacharjee, Chair, FICCI Committee on Fishtech and Founder & CEO, Numer8 Analytics

The COVID pandemic significantly slowed down India’s seafood export in the last two years. The country exported 11,49,341 metric tonnes (MT) of marine products worth Rs 43,717.26 crore ($5.96 billion) during FY 2020-21, which is  10.88 per cent less as  compared to a year earlier. In 2019-20, India exported 12,89,651 MT of seafood worth Rs 46,662.85 crore ($6.68 billion). Frozen shrimp contributed to 51.36 per cent of the total quantity. 

The aquaculture export sector is particularly significant to India, not only from its economic contribution but also from its nutritional value and food security as it creates employment for 25 million people in the country and contributes around 1.27 per cent to India’s GDP. Fish and fishery products from India constitute 10 per cent of total global exports. 

However, the sector is struggling on various fronts including market access, sustainable growth, quality production and policy issues. The problems need to be addressed at the grassroots and also at policy making levels. Let’s look at the top few issues plaguing the sector

1. We export only 10 per cent of our total fish production which inherently makes our export basket tiny. The fish production in India reached an all-time high of 14.16 million metric tonnes during 2019-20 while the export of marine products stood at 1.29 million metric tonnes.
2. Quality of both of our marine and inland produce needs to be significantly improved with basic hygiene and traceability metrics in place, on ground. The lack of quality metrics at fish production site or our marine harbours is the biggest hurdle in meeting export standards
3. The export market is not attractive to fisherfolks since they do not get a profitable margin and payments are largely delayed in export. National policy with insurance cover for exporters and fisherfolks is needed to encourage contribution to this sector
4. Export also means a certain level of quality of packaging with certification of vendors. This means we need certification agents and agencies who can not only certify a firm but also train them to achieve certification standard
5. Both road and flight connectivity is a  big challenge to the sector’s performance. Cost of transporting fish is high since it is highly perishable. Also delicate handling needs experts and there is a large skill gap in this industry.
6. A network of low cost cold storages needs to be made available to fisherfolks which will allow them to reduce wastage and also control costs and supply chain consistency 

From 2010-11, there has been a continuous increase in the production of Vannamei shrimps. Vannamei is the only shrimp variety that is creating revenue opportunities for our farmers but we are mainly depending on the US and China. So, we need to broaden our export market including export baskets.

The above needs broad thinking into exploring the vast potential of our aqua market. We should not only move away from just depending on shrimps but even just fish as our aquaculture exports commodities. With the world getting more and more worried about climate change and seaweed being a catalyst to not only reducing the adverse effects of climate change but also holding large business opportunities, I believe, it’s time we consider seaweed seriously. 

The Prime Minister has set the target of national seaweed production to 1.12 million tonnes by 2025 and this would need immediate action. South East Asian countries like China and Indonesia produced close to 13.9 and 11.2 million tonnes respectively. In 2020, the top exporters of seaweeds and other algae were China ($3.74 million), Ireland ($2.62 million), South Korea ($2.3 million), France ($1.12 million), and Brazil ($579k).

The global marine ecosystem is fighting a lot of challenges. The key need of the hour is to find a sustainable blue economy while alleviating the food security needs of our small scale fisherfolks. In the people, planet and profit model of sustainability, it is important to safeguard the interest of producers while building climate friendly solutions and creating sustainable profitable business opportunities for all. 

Our discussion on improving India’s aquaculture export quantity and quality will need to be looked at through the same lens since the world is increasingly becoming very sensitive about climate resilient and climate friendly agriculture. 

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