India’s whiteleg shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) production is expected to exceed 450,000 metric tons (MT) this year, an increase of 10 percent on last year’s record harvest of 406,000 MT.
Speaking at the fourth edition of the Aqua Aquaria India (AAI) expo, held last week in Karnataka in southwest India, the state’s Fisheries Minister, Pramod Madhwaraj, highlighted that together with the country’s black tiger shrimp (Penaeus monodon) production, the total shrimp harvest was now regularly above 500,000 MT.
Meanwhile, the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA), has confirmed that India’s seafood export earnings had been growing significantly over the past five years with figures in excess of USD 5.5 billion (EUR 5 billion) in the fiscal year 2014-15. However, last year’s value reached only USD 4.7 billion (EUR 4.3 billion), despite the volume increasing to more than 945,892 MT.
Aquaculture accounts for around 70 percent of the country’s total seafood export earnings. In volume terms, it is the leading exporter of shrimp to the United States and the second largest exporter to Europe.
