Gujarat planning marine food SEZ

Inspired by the increasing demand of marine food for the last few years, Gujarat is seriously mulling setting up a marine food special economic zone (SEZ) in the state to further boost exports.

The State Department of Fisheries, under the Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operation, has already started looking for a proper place where the SEZ can be viable.

For the last few years the demand of marine food is increasing globally. When the proposed SEZ comes up the marine sector will have a common platform from where the sector will get its most major business. However, the concept of setting up the marine food SEZ is still at the department level and has not been proposed to the state department of industry.

D K Rao, Secretary, Fisheries, told Business Standard, "We are planning such an SEZ in the state to boost marine food exports in the state. Presently, we are looking for a suitable place where the SEZ can be viable. Various options include Porbandar and Junagadh districts. If not Porbandar then Veraval and Mangrol in Junagadh district are most suitable places."

On the other hand, sources in the fisheries department indicated that the government has already chosen Veraval for the SEZ. Sources said that around 200 hectares of land near Veraval have been chosen for developing various facilities like cold storages, ice factory and a fish processing plant. They said that the government has also provided funds for developing infrastructure including a building, roads and drainage as well as electricity and water supply.

On the production and exports of marine food, Rao said, "Last year the state exported marine food worth over Rs 900 crore. The state's total marine food production is around nearly 7 lakh metric tonne. Around 1.34 lakh metric tonne of the total marine food production is exported to Japan, USA., European Union, South East Asia, West Asian countries.

The state government is also open to the idea of private partnership in the proposed SEZ. It is believed that the state is likely to come up with tenders once the fine details of the project are ready. The tenders are likely to be global. It is likely that some of the private players of these importing countries also show interest for partnership in the project.

Last few year's figures of the marine food production show that the production has more or less remained stable except for 2003-04 and 2004-05. The state produced 620,474 Mt of marine fish in the year 2000-01. The production increased to 650,829 Mt in 2001-02. The production touched the ceiling in 2002-03 with 743, 360 Mt production. However, the production took a dip in 2003-04 with only 609,136 Mt of marine fish which further fell to 584,951 MT in 2004-05. However, the department claims the government efforts are resulting into better production and recently launched 'Sagarkhedu Yojna' will further boost up the production.

However, figures provided by the department show that the inland fish production is on the rise after a dip in 2002-03. The state produced 40,591 MT of inland fish in 2000-01.

In 2001-02 the production went up to 60,774 Mt, however, in 2002-03 the production went down to 34,267 Mt. However, the production again increased to 45,436 Mt in 2003-04 which further went up to 50,628 Mt in 2004-05.

Export scenario also remained same for the last few years. The figures of show that the state had exported 124,159 MT of fish and fish products in 2000-01, this increased to 132,175 MT in 2000-01. Exports touched the ceiling in 2002-03 with 134,047 MT.

However, 2003-04 witnessed a dip in the production with only 108,386 MT exports. The trend again took an upward motion and the production increased to 119,951 MT in 2004-05. The department claims that the state exported 1.34 lakh MT in 2006-07.