Coastal Aquaculture and Mariculture

Unit 4 - Indian marine capture fisheries

4.5. Seafood export trade
In India, seafood export contributes sizably to the national income. Seafood export earnings increased from Rs. 2.46 crores in 1951 to Rs. 7245.30 crores in 2005- 2006. About 85% of the catch is used for internal consumption i.e., for domestic market and the rest is utilized for exports. The following table shows the details of the seafood exported during 1950 -2006.

The over all export of marine products has reached an ever time record of 1.6 billion US$ during the year 2005 -2006. The total exports aggregated to 5, 121, 64 tonnes valued at Rs.7245.30 crores and US$ 1644.21 million. European Union continued to be largest market for Indian marine products during 2005-06. Its share was 26.72% in quantity, 29.46% in value and 29.44% in US$ realization. USA, the second largest market had a share of 10.90%, 22.63%, 22.66% in quantity, value and US$ respectively. Japan is the third largest market in terms of value. Frozen shrimp continued to be the largest item exported in terms of value with 59.02% and Frozen fish continued to be the major item in terms of quantity with 35.60% during 2005 -2006. USA continued to be the major market for Indian frozen shrimp with 31.90% followed by European Union with 27.98%, Japan with 20.25%, South East Asia with 4.64% etc. During he year 2005-06, frozen shrimp was exported to 62 countries. China is the main market for our frozen fish. 57.45% accounted to China, 13.65% to South East Asia, 7.31% to Middle East etc. Frozen fish was exported to 63 countries during the year 2000-2006. Our main market for frozen cuttlefish was European Union with 73.50%, China with 14.45% etc. European Union continued to be the main market for Indian frozen squid export with 69. 15% followed by USA with 16.45%, Japan with 5.21%. Dried items were exported to 36 countries and the major players were Hong Kong (38.98%), China (17.65%), Sri Lanka (14.35%) and Singapore (8.56%). Live items were exported to 27 countries. Singapore was the main market for Indian live fish (52.68%) followed by Hong Kong (26.52%), Thailand (14.37%) etc. Chilled fish were exported to 30 countries during 2005-06. Major markets for chilled fish were Singapore (23.26%), UAE (22.72%), Thailand (15.22%) etc.