Thus from the traditional buyers in neighboring countries, Indian
market in frozen marine products spread to other developed
countries. Before 1960, when our exports were dominated by
dried items, markets of our marine products largely confined to
neighboring countries like Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Singapore etc.
With the development of technology and modernization, these
dried marine products gave way to canned and frozen items. Thus,
as the product changed, market also was changed. As a result,
more affluent developed countries like Japan, USA, Europe,
Australia etc became our buyers. Several units of seafood
processing with modern machinery were set up across the country
for freezing and production of marine products. Till 1977, USA
was our principal buyer of shrimp, but later Japan emerged as
the principal buyer of the product followed by the west European
countries. Till 2001-02, Japan remained the single largest buyer
of our marine products, accounting about 31% of the total export
value. In the year 2002-03 and 2003-04, USA emerged as the single
largest buyer of our marine products. In the year 2004-05,
European Union emerged as the largest importer of Indian marine
products and remained in this position till 2010-11. After 2011
South East Asia become the largest market for Indian marine
products followed by European Union, USA, Japan and China.
Quality Control
Processed products in sea food industry are highly heterogeneous
and perishable in nature, especially in tropical conditions.
Therefore, quality control of sea food is very vital in seafood
industry. Taking this into consideration, the industry has adopted
modern methods of processing sea food with stringent quality
control methods. Safety has become a matter of great concern
over the past few years, especially in developed countries where
food safety offences are considered in government level. With
the advancement of technology and public awareness, consumers
are becoming increasingly demanding in terms of quality,
freshness, nutritional value and microbiological safety of food.
The Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA)
plays a pivotal role in implementing HACCP system in the
processing units and residue monitoring in the aquafarming sector
to ensure food safety.
220 marine resources
ANCHOR
INDIA
Ornamental Fish Trade
Developed countries are getting more and more interested in
ornamental fish keeping, which is the second most popular hobby
after photography. There is a steady growth in aquarium fish trade
with the growing interest in aquarium fishes. The retail value of
the global ornamental fish trade is US$ 6 billion whereas
wholesale value is US$ 1 billion. The entire industry including
accessories and fish feed, is estimated to be worth around US$
18-20 billion. Out of nearly 8000 marine ornamental, only 25 are
bred in captivity and more than 90% of freshwater fish are captive
bred. Ornamental fish are imported by more than 120 countries,
among them the EU is the major importer, followed by North
America, and Japan. In the EU, UK holds 19% of the trade share
whereas Germany holds 18% of it. France, the Netherlands,
Belgium, Spain and Italy are also major importers of ornamental
fish. In North America, USA plays the role of largest importer with
85% share. Singapore is the largest exporter of ornamental fishes
with exports doubles that of other exporters. India has most
suitable climate, bio diversity, manpower and abundant water
resources. But India’s share in global ornamental fish trade is very
less as India dominates in wild caught species. Also, the unit value
of ornamental fish is higher than the food fish in our domestic
markets. India is the first country to prepare strategies and
measures aimed at the sustainable development of freshwater
ornamental fish sector. A task force was formed by MPEDA for
the purpose and brought out ‘Green Certification Guidelines for
Freshwater ornamental fishes’, which is acknowledged as a
welcome move the stakeholders across various countries.
Shrimps
More than 85 species of shrimps are known to exist in Indian
waters and 55 among them are reported to be commercially more
important and having considerable demand in international
market. Among these, the post larvae and juveniles get into the
estuarine waters, grow and then migrate back to the sea for
reproduction. These species breed at different depths of the sea
and amo