During 2014-15, the volume of exports crossed a record 1 million metric tons for the first time, said officials with Marine Products Export Development Authority (Mpeda). Exports aggregated to 10.5m metric tons, valued at INR 334bn ($5.5bn). Compared to the previous year, seafood exports recorded a growth of 6.86% in volume, 10.69% in rupee term (10.05% in dollar).
“We could have touched $6.5bn mark, but the drop in unit value of shrimps due to good supply from other sources prevented us," said Leena Nair, chairman of Mpeda. "This growth may be viewed under the prevailing international market situations -- the depreciation of euro, weaker economic condition in China, devaluation of yen, depreciation of Indian rupee and improvement in supply,” he said.
Frozen shrimp continued to be the major export item in terms of quantity and value, accounting for a share of 34.01% in quantity and 67.19% of the total dollar earnings.
Shrimp exports during the period increased by 18.60%, 16% and 15.54% in quantity, in rupee value and in dollar value, respectively. However, unit value realisation decreased to $10.38/kg from $10.65 in 2013- 14.
Improvement in supply conditions in South East Asian countries in comparison to the previous year has resulted in a continuous drop in the price of shrimp, a principal commodity of Indian seafood export basket.
Most recently, prices for Indian vannamei shrimp raw material have taken a tumble, dropping below the break-even level for farmers.
No comments:
Post a Comment