Odisha govt likely send biz delegation to Portugal

In a bid to explore the market of marine food products in Portugal, Odisha government is likely to send a business delegation to that country in March 2015, official sources said.
This was discussed at a meeting here attended by Jitendra Nath Misra, Ambassador of India to Portugal. The meeting discussed on the prospects of export of marine food products of Odisha to Portugal.
Mishra highlighted that Portugal was a major market for seafood, since its per capita consumption of marine food was the highest in the world.
He also stressed on the comparative advantage of the availability of naturally grown products in Chilika lake, which could be marketed in Portugal provided proper certification was followed.

The proposed delegation to visit Portugal would comprise seafood exporters, representatives of tourism sector, textile, handloom and handicrafts and food processing sectors.
The Commissioner-cum-Secretary of fisheries department was asked to coordinate for the visit of the delegation to Portugal in March 2015, an official release said.

According to president of Odisha Seafood Exporters' Association Gora Chand Mohanty, the current picture of seafood exports from Odisha was Rs 1,817 crore with an annual growth rate of 30 per cent.
At present, there were 31 exporters in the state who export seafood products and of them 11 processing units were approved by the European Union.

Mohanty claimed the marine products from Odisha have been in great demand since the farmers do not use any antibiotics and the products were without any antibiotic residue.