‘Seafood exports need quality packaging' .

Madurai,The demand for seafood is rapidly increasing in the international market and importing countries are very much concerned about the quality of packaging. Failure to meet such standards, meant incurring a loss of Rs 500 crore a year, said Mr M. Sakthivel, President, Aquaculture Foundation of India.

Speaking at a national workshop on ‘Advanced packaging technologies for cobia fish products to augment domestic and international markets', held in Tuticorin recently, he said that despite India having skilled manpower and quality fish products, the quality of packing was not up to the mark and that affected promotion of exports at the international level.

Though India exported shrimps to Europe, Japan and US, due to poor packaging, India could not establish its name internationally. There is also a need to work on live fish transport packaging, as consumers were eager to consume ready-to-cook fish, he said.

He stressed on the adoption of post-harvest hygienic preservatory methods to maintain the quality of fish products, the sources added.

Source : Business Line