A. Jayathilak, Chairman of Marine Products Export Development Authority, talks to Joe C. Mathew about how shrimp is driving India’s marine exports. Marine product exports dipped 10 per cent last year. How is the market growth now? We have recovered completely. We are at a 10 per cent growth rate since the past six months. I think the worst of recession is over. The worst period for the fish sector is over. We will touch $5.6 billion this year. We have set a $10-billion target for 2020. The marine export basket is heavily skewed towards shrimp. Is this way of export promotion sustainable? We shouldn’t be putting all our eggs in one basket. But it goes by market dynamics. There is a huge international demand for pacific white shrimp. We don’t expect the demand to come down overnight. But we need to diversify. How can the aquaculture industry be equipped to face the US FDA’s regulatory scrutiny? The standards, and the periodic modifications, have to be communicated to and understood by the entire supply chain. We take inputs from them (US FDA), though there is no direct role for the regulatory agency. The other way to ensure best practice is to let the exporter know who actually produced the lot he exports. We are putting in place a traceability system. With bar-coding, you will be able to trace the shrimp to the pond. Is your $10-billion target completely dependent on pacific white shrimps? We want to promote the black tiger shrimp, the original Indian shrimp variety, too. It has a distinctive taste. It is a niche market. Even today there are enquiries, but we are not able to meet them. We will get a higher price for black tiger since when supply is low, unit value realisation will be higher. Once our nucleus breeding centre in Andaman is ready, the production of black tiger shrimp will go up. That is how we will approach the $10-billion target.
2016 Living Media India Limited.