The detection of ethoxyquin, an antioxidant, in the shrimps exported to Japan has badly hit India’s export prospects to that country. Japan had already rejected more than 10 consignments of shrimps exported from India in the recent weeks, causing heavy losses to exporters and shrimp farmers.
High level sources said as the issue is yet to be sorted out, Japan is likely to ban shrimp imports from India. There have been a lot of cancellations from Japan and this has badly affected exporters based in Odisha and West Bengal. It is learnt that the commerce ministry had called for an urgent meeting in Chennai on August 27 and a high level delegation is likely to visit Tokyo soon.
The problem has also caused a drastic reduction in the prices of shrimp in the global market, with these falling 25-35 per cent in two-three weeks. There is also a fall in export orders from other major import destinations like the Europe and the US.
Odisha and West Bengal regions are the most affected areas as around 60 per cent of the black tiger variety of shrimp produced in these regions is exported to Japan. G Mohanty, president of Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI), Odisha region, told Business Standard that Japan had started the testing of ethoxyquin, without any notice to exporters or to the government. He said the aquaculture sector in Odisha and West Bengal is in crisis as the prices had dropped heavily. “There will not be any shrimp aquaculture production in the coming years,” he added.
“Already importers have been asked not to ship the cargo until the issue is sorted out. So, a large number of containers are now stocked in Kolkata,” said Taj Mohamed, president, SEAI, West Bengal region.
Due to this India suffered a serious setback in marine product exports during the April-June period of the current financial year as the country’s products lost their sheen in major export markets like Europe and Japan. Cumulative export in the period dropped to 131,000 tonnes, valued at Rs 2,700 crore, as against 165,000 tonnes, valued at Rs 2,870 crore in the same period of the last financial year. This shows a fall of 20 per cent in volume and five per cent in value. In dollar terms, the decrease was 20 per cent at $515 million as against $645 million. Last fiscal, exports increased 6.02 per cent in volume and 28.65 per cent in rupee terms when compared to those in 2010-11.