Odisha aims to export Seafood of Rs 3,000 cr this Financial Year

Odisha government has decided to increase export of seafood and set up a target to generate revenue of Rs 3,000 crore during this financial year.

The state has exported nearly 10-15 percent production and earned foreign exchange worth Rs 2,070 crore in 2014-15.

According to the official sources, it has adopted a comprehensive fishery policy to generate Rs 10,000 crore by 2020 from seafood export.

Seafood like marine fish, shrimp, crab, squid, octopus and cuttlefish has market demand in foreign countries. Major markets for Odisha seafood include South East Asia (39%) followed by USA (28%), European Union (11%) and Japan (9%). Official sources said 97.79 per cent of the total value is contributed by frozen shrimp.

One of the most contributors of seafood in the state is Chilika Lake, a brackish water lake which naturally produces seafood. Around 12,137 MT of fishes, shrimps and crabs are produced from Chilika annually. “The demand of these products is high in overseas markets as they are natural products,” said Fisheries and Animal Resources Development Secretary Bishnupada Sethi.

Sethi also said the government has decided to create necessary infrastructure like air cargo handling at the Biju Patnaik International Airport to facilitate export of the live seafood items to other countries.

Sethi had a discussion with Devendra Chaudhury, Union Secretary for Animal Husbandry, dairy and fisheries in New Delhi on Tuesday regarding the air cargo handling.

Keeping in view of this, the state government is also planning to hold discussion with Paradip Port to arrange more containers with modern facilities for effective export of sea food through sea route.