 "A barrel of fish Photo: Reuters")
The exit of UK from the European Union (EU) brings a fresh lease of hope among the Indian seafood exporters who see this an opportunity to boost their exports.
The exports to the EU nations had plunged due to stricter norms and restrictions imposed on import of Indian sea food items. Exporters feel that the exit of UK from the Group would increase the shipping of their produce to the island nation as it was during the pre-EU formation days.
“While 30-40 per cent of Indian marine products were exported to UK (prior to formation of EU), now it has plunged. The exports to UK was as good as it was to the US. Exports to UK were in a free flow but then declined after the EU adopted stricter norms and stipulations for import of the items , may be for controlling the prices”, said Ajay Dash, Sea Food Exporters Association of India(SEAI)- Odisha region.
The EU had mandated to raise the level of processing upto a standard level as per their norms for the exporting countries and getting it approved from them . Similarly, the pre-harvest testing of aquaculture products was mandatory for export to EU countries.
"With the Brexit, we are hopeful that trade relations with UK for exports of Indian sea products will go back to good old days if UK’s economy stabilises. The norms may be liberalised. UK may chalk the plans depending on their demand separately as has been done by USA and Canada", he added.
However, the exporters are skeptic whether UK will formulate new norms or will follow the prevailing ones in days to come.
“We are having a mixed reaction," he said.
EU is the third largest market for Indian seafood exports after USA and South East Asia as per MPEDA (Marine Products Export Development Authority ) , the nodal agency for promotion of export of marine products from India. In 2014-15, USA was the largest market for Indian seafood products with a share of 26.46 per cent in terms of USD followed by South East Asia (25.71 per cent), EU (20.08 per cent), Japan (9.11 per cent), other countries (8.58 per cent), middle east (6.04 per cent) and China ( four per cent).
