India’s seafood exports to China crashed by 40 percent in value and 36 percent in volume between April and December, hurt by strict inspection measures imposed by Chinese authorities, ostensibly to guard against COVID-19.
Additionally, seafood buyers in China are reducing new purchases because their inventory remains high, Indian Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA)’s Chairman KS Srinivas told the Indian Financial Express newspaper last week.
Srinivas also attributed the declines to China’s tightening measures to detect coronavirus on import cargoes, which has resulted in delays in import clearance and payments to Indian suppliers.
Overall, India’s seafood exports to all markets between April and January slid 17 percent year-on-year in value and 20.5 percent in volume.
While the South Asian country has also dealt with raw material shortages after COVID-19-related shutdowns earlier this year forced shrimp farmers to curtail their activity, and due to a hesitancy among farmers to stock their ponds due to low prices, India’s shrimp production has increased recently. It produced 651,031 metric tons (MT) of shrimp between April-December, just shy of the 652,626 MT it produced through its entire 2019-2020 fiscal year.
India also received good news from Japan last year after it lifted inspection measures on black tiger shrimp imported from India after residue of the synthetic antibacterial drug furazolidone was no longer detected in any cargoes. Srinivas said Japanese authorities will now undertake routine random sampling of Indian shrimp cargoes.
And India has scored another win as fewer of its shrimp shipments are being inspected for antibiotic residues, after years of increased scrutiny, Srinivas said. However, the E.U. has not made any decision regarding the inspection measures against Indian shrimp cargoes, pending physical verification in India. E.U. inspectors are currently unable to perform any official inspections due to travel restrictions during the pandemic, according to Srinivas.
India’s seafood production accounts for around 6 percent of overall global seafood output. It exported nearly 1.29 million MT of seafood products, worth USD 6.7 billion (EUR 5.6 billion) in the last fiscal year, according to the Financial Express.
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