Efforts are on to increase seafood exports, which will cross $6 billion this fiscal and $10 billion by 2022, Export Inspection Council director S.K. Saxena has said. In an interview to The Hindu here, Mr. Saxena said the production of vannamei (whiteleg shrimp) was growing phenomenally among aquaculture farmers of Andhra Pradesh and a few other coastal States. Stating that Andhra Pradesh was accounting for 70% of aquaculture exports, Mr. Saxena said the Union government in the Budget proposals for 2018-19 laid emphasis on raising exports from food and agriculture sector seeing huge potential to be explored in the years ahead. The seafood export is increasing at 20 to 25% despite emergence of new players in South East Asia. For India, Korea has emerged as a new market after the United States, European Union and Japan. Admitting that value addition was still lacking, he said Visakhapatnam, despite being a leading fish landing centre, lacked awareness among the fish farmers on stopping juvenile fishing and ensuring sustainable fishing. Quality compliance He said food processing facilities would come up for tapping the potential for value addition and improving exports of tuna from the East Coast. Underlining the importance of adhering to quality compliance, he said the importers were laying down stringent conditions due to heavy competition in seafood exports. The thrust was on increasing value of addition with minimal processing. He said the United States had remained the largest market for Indian exporters with South East Asia poised to take over No. 2 slot from the European Union. Black tiger captured in West Bengal and Odisha was getting a very good response in the export market. Besides seafood, basmati rice and bovine meat had huge potential for exports, he added.