The Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) validated 10 catch certificates of wild seafood caught from Indian seas and destined for export to the European Union on the New Year's day. From January 1, catch certification became mandatory for all seafood exports to EU.
While exports from earlier sea catches caught before the cut-off date are still permitted, the exporter will have to provide documents to the EU importer substantiating his claims that the catch was of an earlier date which have undergone preparation, processing and value-addition. Several such statements regarding earlier catches were also endorsed by MPEDA.
The EU regulation 1005/2008 insists that sea caught fishery products, except for a few minor items, should be accompanied by catch certificates validated by a Government-designated authority of the fishing country. More than 68 countries, including India, have notified the EU that they are implementing the scheme. These countries include the ones competing with India in the international seafood market.
The EU regulation does not apply to categories such as live fish, freshwater fish, aquaculture and farmed products, fish meal fit for human consumption, fish oil and certain prepared and preserved fish items that can be exported without the catch certificates.
While confirming that catch certificates have been sought and issued to boat operators on both the East and West coast of India, the Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI) said that boat operators in Kochi have not been seeking these certificates. The boat operators based out of Kochi have been boycotting the process stating that it would create unwanted problems for them.
But this move is expected to create new problems rather than solving them.
While pointing out that the EU has been the single biggest market for Indian seafood products for quite some time, the SEAI highlighted that as much as 40-45 per cent of the seafood exports from Kerala consist of squid and cuttlefish and they are targeted at the EU markets alone. Neither of these seafood product has a unique domestic market nor consumers in large scale in the local markets.
Since the exporters are not bound to accept these products without catch certificates, there is no other avenue to these boats. The SEAI expressed the fear that if the boat operators from Kochi do not cooperate, a good portion of the EU market that the exporters had assiduously built over decades could vanish overnight. And EU remains India's biggest export destination accounting for 33 per cent of its seafood exports.
Source : Business Line