Hyderabad, India has announced a new exposition focused on aquaculture growth and seafood production technology.
The city, located Telangana state in the southcentral part of the country, will host AquaEx India in March 2018. The event is being organized by Society for Indian Fisheries and Aquaculture, in association with Department of Fisheries, Telangana , AquaApp, and will take place at the Hitex Exhibition Centre in Hyderabad from 15 to 17 March, 2018.
Speaking to SeafoodSource.com, a SIFA official said that aquaculture is one of the state’s fastest-growing sectors, and increasing its employment total by five to six percent annually. This comes as Telangana – India's newly formed state, having been created in 2014 – has put its force behind its seafood sector as a route to economic growth.
The state aims to continue to grow both its capture and culture fishery base, while maintaining sustainable development, the SIFA official added. AquaEx will provide local businesses exposure to new technologies, information on new species, and educational seminars on marketing in order to further increase the productivity of the sector, the official said.
Telangana ranks third in India in fishing resources with 587,000 hectares of fishable area, but it is ranked eighth in fish production, having produced 220,000 tons of fish in 2016, according to state fisheries ministry.
SIFA President V. Ramachandra Raju said his group hopes to attract international representation AquaEx India, and that SIFA’s goal for the expo is that it becomes one of the most important aquaculture expositions in India.
“We want to introduce global developments in these sectors to Indian aquaculture sector stakeholders and present about the opportunities available in India to foreign aquaculture players,” Raju told the New Indian Express.
As a country, India is the second-largest aquaculture producer after China, with 10.79 million tons of fish production during 2016-17 fiscal year. With annual export of fish and aquaculture crossing to INR 300 billion (USD 4.60 billion, EUR 3.91 billion), the sector has capacity for further growth, as there is “huge potential to increase domestic consumption as well as exports,” Raju underlined.
