US largest importer of Indian seafood

After a gap of 10 years, the U.S. became the largest importer of Indian seafood items in rupee value terms during the April-September period (H1) of the current financial year (FY13), pushing the European Union (EU) to the second spot. The US’s share in India’s seafood export kitty for H1 stood at 24.40 percent, followed by the EU at 24.18 percent, according to the latest data released by the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA).

However, Indian exports recorded a positive growth in both volume and rupee value terms only to the U.S. In fact, India suffered a serious setback in marine product exports in all its traditional markets in H1, except the U.S.

While exports to the U.S. recorded a growth of 11.42 percent in volume and 9.33 percent in rupee value terms, shipments to the EU dipped 11.27 percent in volume, and Japan recorded a dip of 14.26 percent, according to the MPEDA data. Among the most serious drop was shipments to Japan, where exports dipped in all parameters — volume, rupee and dollar value.

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