India’s Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) aims to further boost the nation’s overseas sales of value-added seafood through stepped-up co-branding efforts in the USA, Japan, Europe and other markets.
“We want to have at least 10 such tie-ups with foreign supermarket chains over the next few months,” stated N. Ramesh, MPEDA’s marketing director. Agreements already exist with the Chiba, Japan-headquartered Aeon Supermarket chain and the Houston, Texas, USA-based Sysco Corporation, North America’s leading foodservice distributor.
MPEDA’s co-branding arrangement with Sysco dates back to 2009, when it inked a deal for the promotion of Indian black tiger shrimp in the United States. The plan now is to gear up such programs, in which domestic producers at MPEDA-registered plants who meet high-quality standards will be allowed to use the Authority’s quality logo when merchandising seafood abroad.
The program, which offers government assistance and incentives, is open to qualified producers of a wide array of value-added fishery products ranging from breaded and battered shrimp and seafood meal kits to surimi-based foodstuffs, squid rings, IQF lobster, cuttlefish and octopus, fish fillets, loins, steaks and chunks, frozen stuffed crab and sashimi grade tuna.
With exports of seafood expected to hit US $4.3 billion during the current fiscal year, it has been estimated by MPEDA Chairman Leena Nair that value-added items will account for 17% of the total. That’s up significantly from just 5% three years ago.
Meanwhile, according to Marketing Director Ramesh, ongoing investment in India’s seafood industry will likely increase capacity by 50% over the next five years, with much of the output being value-added production. By 2020 it is estimated that Indian exports will top US $10 billion.
