)
Odisha, with its vast potential in sea food products, is looking to tap the export market in Portugal, the nation with the highest per capita consumption of marine food.
Jitendra Nath Mishra, Indian ambassador to Portugal has requested state chief secretary, G C Pati to lead a delegation to Portugal to explore market linkages for sea food, tourism, textiles and handicrafts products in that country. The chief secretary has urged the department of fisheries & animal resources to work out a detailed proposal for the visit.
During the meeting with state officials, Mishra informed that Portugal is the major market for sea food products since its per capita consumption of marine food is the highest in the world. The representatives of Sea Food Exporters’ Association present at the meeting proposed separate branding of Odisha’s products.
The chief secretary has urged the sea food exporters association to set up a marketing promotion cell for ensuring quality of the products and establishing long term market linkages. It was decided at the meeting that the directorate of fisheries would provide the necessary guidance to sea food exporters to boost exports.
Sea food exports from Odisha were valued at Rs 1,817 crore in the last fiscal, of which exports to the European Union stood at Rs 250 crore.
Thirty one seafood processing units are exporting their products, out of which 11 units have been approved by European Union.
Odisha has fresh water area of 673,000 hectares (ha) and brackish water area of 418,000 ha along with 480 km of coastal line. With this natural resource, the state has potential to produce 650,000 tonne of fisheries products per year. At present, nearly three per cent of the state’s population is engaged in fishing and contribution of fishery to GSDP (gross state domestic product) is around six per cent.
