Indian Seafood exporters’ hopes lift with US economic recovery

The economic revival in the US and lowering of the anti-dumping duty are expected to boost shrimp exports to that country, according to Mr Anwar Hashim, President of the Seafood Exporters’ Association of India (SEAI).

The anti-dumping duty had a major impact on shrimp exports to the US which plummetted from $ 409 million in 2003 (before the duty imposition) to $ 142 million in 2008.

This fall was despite the total US shrimp imports rising from $ 3.76 billion to $ 4.09 billion during the same period.

Now that the duty has hit 0.79 per cent from the high levels of 10.17 per cent, the trade feels that exports will pick up soon.

Even as the value of shrimp exports to the US fell by close to 70 per cent to $ 140 million, there was an outstanding amount of $ 50 million due to the exporters which they had paid in the US as Customs bonds.

With the duty reigning at 10.17 per cent levels, shrimp exporters were forced to execute Customs bonds to the tune of $ 20 million in 2005-06.

In the following year, they had to execute bonds worth around $ 11.55 million. These were to be reimbursed to the exporters if the levels of duty were reduced in the Annual Administrative Reviews in the following years.

Although successive Administrative Reviews had found lesser incidence of dumping and reduced the duties to 0.79 per cent, the Customs bonds were neither liquidated nor redeemed, SEAI sources pointed out.

At the same time, the fisheries sector here has adapted quickly to the new regime of tracing fish to its origin, time of capture, landing harbour and even the boat that caught the particular fish as sought by the European Union (EU).

The EU is one of the biggest importers of Indian seafood.

The EU believes that the new regulation will reduce the illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.

"EU authorities have understood the problems faced by India where fishing is mostly subsistence and not industrial. So, more that 99 per cent of the catch meant for the EU is processed under the simplified catch certificate, which is relatively less cumbersome," Mr Hashim said.

Simplified catch certificates are meant mainly for traditional or artisanal fisheries and the validation has to be done mainly by the exporters.

Unlike the US market that consumes shrimp, exports to the EU mainly consist of fish like cuttle, squid and ribbonfish. (Source- Exim News Service)

Back to archive