Seafood Produce Lags Export Demand.

India needs to rapidly increase the supply of fish and fisheries product to keep pace with the demand for these products, Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI) has said.

While the global and domestic demand for fish is increasing rapidly, Indian supply is not keeping pace due to low productivity and lesser operational efficiency.

"The global demand for fish is growing tremendously and India lags behind in productivity. We have to increase the productivity of our farms through intensified operations," Anwar Hashim, national president of the SEAI told FE.

According to a report by the National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB), the marine capture fisheries are showing a stagnating trend. Increase in catch has to therefore come from alternative sources such as deep-sea fisheries, aquaculture from freshwater and brakishwater resources, reservoirs and mariculture.

"Our productivity is very poor when compared to some countries like Vietnam. Yield per hectare in Vietnam is as high as 250 tonne per hectare for some species while Indian productivity lags behind at 50 tonne, " Hashim said.

The world market for seafood has doubled to $49.32 billion within the last decade. India's share is only 2.4%, at present, and it is mainly dependant on shrimp as a product. Globally, fish production from capture fisheries and aquaculture was over 130 million tonne in year 2000 as compared to nearly 20 million tonne in 1950, NFDB reports.

Hashim says that the domestic availability of fish is not rising at healthy rate with growing demand. NFDB projections show that share for fish demand in India is estimated at 60% for domestic consumption, 7% for exports and 33% for other purposes.

The projected demand for fish in the country by 2012 is 9.74 million tonne, that can be met by the projected supply of 9.60 million tonne by 2012 with major share of 5.34 million tonne from inland aquaculture followed by 3.10 million tonne from marine fisheries. Experts say that share of Indian fish exports to the global exports has remained insignificant during last several years.

According to an International Institute for Sustainable Development report, barely 5% of India's seafood exports are in the processed form. Most exports are in the form of frozen fish. In addition, the Indian brand does not exist in northern markets. In fact, more than 60% of India's exports to Southeast Asia are re-exported after processing. The final consumers of Indian fish in the north are not aware of the origin. The fish market is characterized by uncertainty, though more pronounced in supply than demand.

The Indian seafood industry needs to consolidate in order to achieve global scale and competitiveness, Hashim said. " We need to achieve global sizing like China, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia. There is still not a single $100-million seafood company in India, which is the average size of profitable seafood firms in Asia," he said.

Unless there is a major consolidation of production, sales and marketing among big Indian seafood companies, the industry will remain a marginal business incapable of effectively competing globally and creating a recognized international brand, he added.

Source : news.in.msn.com