Andhra Pradesh Tops India's Seafood Exports With 32% Of Total Shipments

(MENAFN- KNN India) New Delhi, Jun 19 (KNN) Andhra Pradesh has emerged as the leader in driving India's record seafood exports worth USD 7.38 billion (Rs 60,523 crore) in the financial year 2023-24, contributing around 32 per cent of the total shipments.

Despite global headwinds, the country's marine exports touched an all-time high, according to D.V. Swamy, Chairman of the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA).

This surpassed the previous year's exports of 17,35,286 metric tonnes valued at Rs 63,969 crore.

"Frozen shrimp continued to be the star product, with 7,16,004 MT exported during 2023-24. Andhra Pradesh farmers supplied the lion's share catering to key markets like the USA, China, European Union, Southeast Asia and the Middle East," highlighted A. Jeyabal, MPEDA's Joint Director for the Andhra region.

Apart from shrimp, the state also exported frozen fish, squid, cuttlefish, octopus, lobsters and dried fish items to Japan, Canada, Thailand, Belgium, Spain and others.

The USA remained India's largest seafood export destination at USD 2.55 billion (34.53 per cent), followed by China at USD 1.38 billion (25.33 per cent) and Japan at USD 447 million (6.06 per cent), with frozen shrimp being the primary Japanese import.

Jeyabal stated that MPEDA is actively training aqua farmers to produce quality shrimp and value-added seafood products which have high overseas demand.

"Value-addition will also generate more employment opportunities in the state. We recently facilitated training by Vietnamese experts for young entrepreneurs and are focused on conducting more such workshops", reported Hindu.

The stellar export performance highlights Andhra Pradesh's prowess in the global seafood trade and bodes well for the state's efforts to further bolster its marine exports.

(KNN Bureau)

MENAFN19062024000155011030ID1108350324