‘Shrimp exporters compliant with import norms’

NEW DELHI: Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) on Thursday said Indian shrimp exporters are complying with food safety and quality norms to meet requirements of importing nations, including the US.

The statement comes in the backdrop of some reports alleging food safety and bad labour conditions in the Indian shrimp industry.

“We must counter this vehemently as our marine sector has been complying and constantly upgrading to US shrimp requirements,” FIEO Director General Ajay Sahai said.

“A few exporters may be resorting to such practices but cannot be generalised,” he added.

Sahai noted that the Association of Shrimp Producers of America is putting pressure to increase anti-dumping and countervailing duty on Indian goods to restrict our growth in the market.

“US still imports 80 per cent of their requirements from all over the world and they cannot increase their own production,” Sahai observed. India achieved record exports of seafood both in terms of volume and value (both USD and Rupee) by shipping 17,35,286 tonnes of seafood worth Rs 63,969.14 crore ($8.09 billion) during the 2022-23 fiscal.

During FY23, the export improved in quantity terms by 26.73 per cent, in rupee terms by 11.08 per cent, in $ terms by 4.31 per cent.

Frozen shrimp remained the major export item in terms of both quantity and value while the US and China turned out to be the major importers of India’s seafood.

Frozen shrimp, which earned Rs 43,135.58 crore ($5,481.63 million), retained its position as the most significant item in the basket of seafood exports.

Frozen shrimp accounted for a share of 40.98 per cent in quantity and 67.72 per cent of the total $ earnings. The overall export of frozen shrimps during 2022-23 was pegged at 7,11,099 tonnes.

USA imported 2,75,662 tonnes of frozen shrimp, followed by China at 1,45,743 tonnes.