Fortune 500 food marketing firm SYSCO (USA) will promote and sell Indian black tiger shrimp, giving a global reach to the country’s sea food industry in the midst of a demand slump.
The Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) and SYSCO (USA) on Monday signed a marketing and promotion deal here involving a total expenditure of $ 23.08 million to be shared equally.
The Indian black tiger shrimps, cultured in farms unlike prawns which are known as sea cats, will be branded as ‘MPEDA PORTICO’ shrimps.
Marine products exports which aggregated $ 1.90 billion in 2008-09 declined by about 8 per cent in the first five months of the current fiscal.
“We have a capacity to absorb almost 10,000 million tonne of black tiger shrimps,” SYSCO (USA) Vice President James Butch Vidrine said after signing the memorandum of understanding with MPEDA.
MPEDA Chairperson Leena Nair said the marketing arrangement with SYSCO would help open the US market for the Indian shrimps.
Indian export of shrimp to the US has declined $ 394 million in 2002-03 to $ 152 million in 2008-09, mainly due to lack of brand image.
