Exports held back by US duty

IN FOCUS / MARINE PRODUCTS

The year 2004 started off a bad note for the Indian marine food industry as the United States department of commerce (DoC) passed an interim order slapping an anti-dumping duty on shrimp exported from India.

India was among six other countries which faced the anti-dumping duty imposed by the US DoC, the other countries being China, Thailand, Vietnam, Brazil and Equador.

"The interim order in the anti-dumping case fixing an import duty of 14.20 per cent for the shrimp imported from India to USA affected the export of frozen shrimp to that country," admitted Mohan Kumar, chairman Marine Product Export Development Authority (MPEDA).

MPEDA is hoping to report 5-10 per cent export growth in 2005.

Kumar said market access initiative scheme to boost the export of value added products to the US and the efforts to retrieve the Japanese market would help the industry raise exports and overcome further action by the US government.

US is the second largest buyer of Indian shrimp following Japan. India's total marine product export was to the tune of $ 1.4 billion of which 60 per cent came from shipments of shrimp.

Nearly 25 per cent of the shrimp exported was sold to buyers in the US. The interim order of the US DoC will come up for final judgment only in February 2005.

Overall export to US declined through the year to the extent of 4.38 per cent in volume, 11.46 per cent in value terms and 8.93 per cent in dollar realisation.

Shrimp export declined 7.77 per cent in quantity, 12.67 per cent in rupee value and 10.19 per cent in dollar terms.

Small exporters blamed the Indian arm of a large multinational, which was also a seafood exporter, for the US action against Indian exports.

"The weighted average of anti-dumping duty for India gone up to 14.2 per cent mainly due to one exporter, which was slapped with 27.49 per cent duty," they pointed out.

Export of marine products between January and October of 2004 nevertheless registered a small growth of 2.17 per cent in terms of volume, 0.66 per cent in terms of rupee value and 3.83 per cent in terms of foreign exchange realisation, according to provisional figures.

Exporters said exports would have risen considerably had the US government not imposed the duty.

Total export in the January-October 2004 period was 318,773 MT valued at Rs 4993.64 crore or $ 1.1 billion, against 312,000 MT valued at Rs 4961.14 crore equivalent to $ 1.06 billion during the corresponding period last year. Overall unit value also registered a marginal growth of 1.62 per cent.

However, the unit value of frozen shrimp decreased to $ 6.79 from US $ 6.95 as compared to the previous year.

The unit value of frozen fish however increased from $ 0.99 to US $1.07 registering a growth of 7.76 per cent.

Exports of frozen cuttlefish, frozen squid and live items shrank by 0.72 per cent, 9.98 per cent and 7.80 per cent respectively as compared to the previous year. The unit value of black tiger shrimp fell from $ 9.18 to $ 8.21 from the previous year.