• Indian shrimp exporters follow a robust regulatory and safety regime, as it helps them to ship quality marine products to developed regions like the US and Europe.

• India is aiming to increase seafood exports to Rs 1 lakh crore in the next two years by increasing its processing capacity and shifting to higher value-added products.

• India’s 548 seafood units are regularly inspected and monitored by various government agencies.

• All units are registered with MPEDA (Marine Products Export Development Authority) and FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India), and approved by EIC (Export Inspection Council) as mandated by the law.

• Indian shrimp has 40 per cent of the US market. A big chunk of Indian shrimp that makes its way to the US gets processed in some Latin American nations. India wants to do that processing locally to capture the higher value of exports.

• There are around one lakh shrimp farms in India most of which are in Andhra Pradesh.

• Total frozen shrimp exports topped $5.6 billion in 2022-23. The US is the single biggest market taking in $2.4 billion out of $5.6 billion worth of shrimp that left Indian shores.

• China, the European Union, South East Asia, Japan and Middle Eastern countries have also emerged as major markets for India’s frozen shrimp.

Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA)

• The Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA), a statutory body under the ministry of commerce & industry, was constituted in 1972 with a mandate of developing a conducive ecosystem for marine products in the country and promotion of its export from India. 

• The erstwhile Marine Products Export Promotion Council established by the government of India in September 1961 was merged into MPEDA.

• MPEDA is given the mandate to promote the marine products industry with special reference to exports from the country. 

• It is envisaged that this organisation would take all actions to develop and augment the resources required for promoting the exports of “all varieties of fishery products known commercially as shrimp, prawn, lobster, crab, fish, shell-fish, other aquatic animals or plants or part thereof and any other products which the authority may, by notification in the Gazette of India, declare to be marine products for the purposes of (the) Act”.

• The Act empowers MPEDA to regulate exports of marine products and take all measures required for ensuring sustained, quality seafood exports from the country.

• MPEDA is given the authority to prescribe for itself any matters which the future might require for protecting and augmenting the seafood exports from the country. 

• It is also empowered to carry out inspection of marine products, its raw material, fixing standards, specifications, and training as well as take all necessary steps for marketing the seafood overseas.

• Based on the recommendations of MPEDA, the government notified new standards for fishing vessels, storage premises, processing plants and conveyances. 

• MPEDA’s focus is mainly on market promotion, capture fisheries, culture fisheries, processing infrastructure & value addition, quality control, research & development.

• The Authority has its headquarters located in Kochi and consists of 30 members including a chairman (appointed by the central government).

• There are 18 field offices across the coastal states including one in northeast India to assist the marine product exporters, processors and aquaculturists for ensuring timely advice to the stakeholders. 

• MPEDA has three trade promotion offices at New York, Japan and New Delhi and five full-fledged Quality Control Laboratories. 

• MPEDA has also set up three registered societies — Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Aquaculture (RGCA) for promotion of diversified aquaculture to support export promotion by technology transfer, Network for Fish Quality Management and Sustainable Fishing (NETFISH) for extension activities on fish quality management, and sustainable Fishing and National Centre for Sustainable Aquaculture (NaCSA) to enable aquaculture farmers to adopt sustainable farming practices in the Aquaculture. 

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