Seafood Exporters’ Association of India (SEAI) president V. Padmanabham has predicted that Vannamei, white-leg shrimp cultured by aquaculture farms mainly in Andhra Pradesh, is the future of Indian seafood exports and called for improvement in facilities like brooder multiplication and seed production.
In an exclusive interview on the sidelines of the ongoing 20th edition of India International Seafood Show-2016 here, he told The Hindu on Saturday that the industry was also making serious efforts to popularise the globally accepted aquaculture practices to yield better results and sustainability.
Exotic species
Vannamei is an exotic species and its demand is growing in the global market due to low price, nutritional properties and taste.
Stating that Vannamei would continue to play a major role in achieving India’s marine product export target of $10 billion by 2020, he said seafood exports rose from Rs.10,000 crore in 2009-10 to Rs.33,500 crore in 2014-15, registering a phenomenal growth of 330 per cent in five years.
No other sector has achieved such an impressive growth.
Andhra Pradesh has contributed 45 per cent of the total exports and the aqua products have a lion’s share of 65 per cent from the State. “We are in tune with the double-digit growth target set for the country,” he stated.
Referring to the drop in export value last year by 10 per cent, he attributed it to the market situation internationally but the volume increased by five per cent. The total exports, which were $4.7 billion, are expected to go up to $5.6 billion this fiscal.
Mr. Padmanabham said that besides Vannamei, there was bright scope to increase exports if more focus was laid on value addition of captured fish and tuna.
India is the largest producer of Vannamei in the world followed by Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Ecuador.
