Indian exporters can now start exporting marine food products to China again, a $5 billion market for these items, according to an Indian embassy official.
India is one among 37 countries which has been cleared by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) to start exporting marine food products to China, K Nagaraj Naidu, Counsellor (Commercial) at the Indian Embassy said.
The new regulations require all countries exporting aquatic products to China to ensure that their consignments are accompanied with inspection certificates, the formats of which has to be previously approved and notified by AQSIQ.
India is not new to Chinese market. AQSIQ had, however, last year brought out new regulations to enhance the inspection and quarantine of aquatic products and to secure the quality and safety of aquatic products imported into China.
Last year India exported about $149 million worth of marine food products, mostly frozen fish and prawns. The overall Chinese marine export market is about $5 billion, which provides a very good opportunity to Indian exporters to tap into, Naidu said.
"We hope to see far bigger exports of our marine food products into China, now that we have necessary permissions in place," he said.
Russia tops the list of marine food exporters to China, exporting about US $1.5 billion worth of marine food last year. Other important exporters to China include the US, Norway, New Zealand, and Japan. India is the seventh largest exporter.
Indian officials feel that exporters should take advantage of the opportunities being created to enter the lucrative Chinese markets for different products.
Recently, China permitted for the first time exports of Indian Basmati rice which was expected to make its presence felt in the Chinese markets this year.
Though China has permitted Indian mango exports way back in 2003, their presence is hardly felt here even though Chinese public are fond of mangoes, which are imported from Philippines and Thailand.
It is not enough that we get permits, but our businessmen should take advantage of them, Naidu said.