Tuna fishing catching on

After netting good profits in Tuna fishing, the hopes of the members of Association of Indian Fishery Industries (AIFI), which represents the deep-sea fishing industry in the country, have soared.

Expecting rich harvest this time around too, operators of trawlers as well as mini-trawlers have decided to invest about Rs 8-9 crore over the next 6-7 months to convert their vessels for Tuna fishing.

The Marine Products Exports Development Agency (Mpeda) has come forward to give 50 per cent amount as subsidy to operators to encourage Tuna fishing.

Over the years, Visakhapatnam has been the headquarter for the deep-sea fishing industry in the country. For at least 35 years now, the deep-sea fishing industry in the country has been depending only on tiger shrimp.

Due to increase of in number of trawlers and dwindling shrimp reserves in Indian waters, almost all the trawler operating companies have sunk into deep losses.

To bring the glory back to the deep-sea industry, eight years ago, the government had implemented a revival package. But owing to a drop in shrimp catches and fall in shrimp prices in the international market, the industry has slipped into further losses. Because of these reasons, the number of trawlers in the country came down to 65-70 from 180 over the last 6-7 years.

Against this backdrop, Mpeda has drawn up plans to encourage Tuna fishing. The fish, found abundantly in Indian waters, is in good demand in the international market.

The first to test the waters in the deep sea were six trawler operators who had their vessels fitted with necessary equipment for Tuna fishing in August, 2005. In September, the six embarked jointly on their new venture and reaped rich harvest of Tuna fish, making a killing in the process, B Srinivasa Rao, AIFI secretary, told Business Standard.

Normally, Tuna fishing season begins in the middle of August and ends in March.

According to industry sources, each trawler operator caught on an average 750 kg of Tuna fish a day. Each kilo of the fish fetched Rs 250 on an average. Supposing, a trawler operator spent about Rs 70,000 a day as operational cost, including fuel, each one must have made a clean profit of more than Rs 1,00,000 a day on Tuna fishing.

Buoyed by huge profits, other trawler operators are now jumping on to the Tuna fishing bandwagon. It costs about Rs 30-35 lakh to convert a trawler for Tuna fishing purposes while about Rs 15 lakh is required for retrofitting mini trawlers.

During the current Tuna fishing season, though only six vessels ventured into Tuna fishing initially, two more have followed suit recently in view of huge profits and 15 trawlers are being retrofitted for the purpose.

Mpeda is providing Rs15 lakh to each trawler operator and Rs 7.5 lakh to a mini-trawler as subsidy for conversion. If the government provides landing and Tuna processing facilities at Vizag, the country would get Rs 800-1000 crore foreign exchange by exporting Tuna, he noted.

Big Catch

Mpeda has come forward to give 50 per cent amount as subsidy to operators to encourage Tuna fishing

During the current Tuna fishing season, though only six vessels ventured into Tuna fishing initially, two more have followed suit recently in view of huge profits and 15 trawlers are being retrofitted for the purpose

Mpeda is providing Rs15 lakh to each trawler operator and Rs 7.5 lakh to a mini-trawler as subsidy for conversion