President of the Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI) Anwar Hashim said that early signs of economic revitalization and falling rates of anti-dumping duty show promise for Indian shrimp exports to the US, although he concedes that problems continue.
Anti-dumping duties had a major impact on shrimp exports to the US, which consequently plunged from USD 409 million in 2003, before the duty imposition, to USD 142 million afterward in 2008. This dip took place despite the total US shrimp imports rocketing from USD 3.76 billion to USD 4.09 billion during the same period.
The US was then importing just 7 per cent of the Indian seafood exports by volume and 13 per cent by foreign exchange earnings. This was further undermined as the value of exports to the US skid sharply to 7 per cent, according to the figures for the first six months of the current fiscal year.
Now that the anti-dumping duty has hit 0.79 per cent down from 10.17 per cent levels, exports could rise, reports The Hindu Business Line.
The impact of this was harshest among shrimp farmers, Hashim said. Almost 40 per cent of those who had been raising black tiger shrimp along the Andhra coast have had to quit.
Recurrent epidemics, the impact of anti-dumping duty on Indian shrimp exports to the US and the invasion of cheaper vannamei shrimp from other Southeast Asian countries in export markets were the chief causes for said farmers' withdrawal from shrimp aquaculture. And farmed shrimp production took a nosedive during the recent past.
Despite the newly low duty rates and early signs of economic recovery, major impediments linger for shrimp exports to the US, such as cheaper vannamei shrimp imports from competing Asian countries, which are now being sold by US retailers.
But aquaculture farmers are slowly returning to their business given the recent availability of pathogen-free seeds of vannamei shrimp in the Indian market.
Some farmers have begun the new season with vannamei shrimp cultivation, whose cost is half that of farming traditional black tiger shrimp.
Source : fis.com