MPEDA’s 50th year celebrations to begin Wednesday
Union Minister Anupriya Patel to inaugurate Golden Jubilee in Kochi
Kochi / August 23, 2022
Kochi, Aug 23: Credited with making India’s marine products a global brand that has sustained in the face of stiff competition, the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) has completed five decades marked by breakthroughs and improved infrastructure and providing a considerable impetus to the seafood industry in the country’s coastal states.
Launched in 1972 as a statutory body of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, MPEDA is all set to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of its eventful existence, with India’s marine exports touching 1.4 million tonnes (Rs.57,586 crore) as against just 35,523 tonnes in the year of inception and the delectable products finding a stamp of approval from seafood gourmets from across the globe.
Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Smt. Anupriya Patel will kick-start the event in the city on August 24. The function at Grand Hyatt in Bolgatty Island will also see the distribution of the MPEDA Export Awards and Champions trophy of MPEDA Golden Jubilee Marine Quest 2022.
Overlapping with the country’s 75th Independence Day festivities under Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, Wednesday’s event will be attended by Mr Diwakar Nath Misra, Joint Secretary, Department of Commerce, Govt. of India; MPEDA ex-Chairman Mr T.K.A Nair (former Principal Secretary & Advisor to Prime Minister), Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation Chairman Mr Paul Antony (Kerala’s former Chief Secretary); and Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI) National President Mr Jagadish Fofandi.
MPEDA Chairman Mr Dodda Venkata Swamy said the Golden Jubilee comes amid its continued efforts to capitalise on the milestones reflected in its fundamental focus on capture fisheries, value-added products and market promotion, besides establishing a pan-India network while invigorating quality and sustainability.
“We are readying to host the 23rd edition of the biennial India International Seafood Show (IISS). The February 2023 event at Kolkata will provide an ideal platform for interaction between Indian exporters and overseas importers of India’s marine products,” he added. MPEDA has decided to chalk out an export development plan to target export of 20 billion US dollars in the next five years. “It will require a growth rate of about 15 per cent. We need to sustain and accelerate the growth tempo to meet this target,” he pointed out.
To achieve this target, MPEDA plans to identify around 20 export markets which account for about 90 per cent of exports and assign each market to an officer, who would be tasked with gauging the export potential and monitoring the market trends. Further, other plans include publishing a monthly market update and preparing a buyers’ directory for distribution among the exporters. States play a significant role in the implementation of various activities of MPEDA. Preparing a state-wise export development plan in consultation with states would be our priority. The organisation is exploring the option of identifying entrepreneurs to export seafood in rupees to Russia.
MPEDA had begun its current decade with a significant deal with Cochin Port Trust to modernise Cochin Fisheries Harbour with more than a dozen key features that will enhance the unit value of sea-caught items and minimise post-harvest losses, Mr Swamy recalled. The September 2020 MoU facilitated the Rs 140-crore project that will mobilise resources from various Central government schemes.
In order to broad-base its programmes and activities, MPEDA has set up three allied bodies like RGCA (Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Aquaculture) at Sirkali in Tamil Nadu, which promotes diversified aquaculture such as seabass, mud crab and GIFT (Tilapia) and is also engaged in the revival of Black Tiger shrimp in Andaman. The other two arms of MPEDA are NETFISH (Network for Fish Quality Management and Sustainable Fishing) at Kochi, which provides extension services to fishers and collects real-time catch data and supports in the validation of catch certification for exports, and NaCSA (National Centre for Sustainable Aquaculture) at Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh, which promotes cluster farming, provides financial assistance for common infrastructure facilities.
MPEDA launched e-E-SANTA, an e-commerce platform connecting farmers and exporters.
Another significant achievement was launching a system validating EU catch and ICCAT (The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas) certificates, besides opening 16 ELISA labs for pre-harvest testing. The last decade saw it starting 20 Aqua One Centres for farmers, providing SHAPHARI Certification for residue-free shrimps, virtual commerce platform E-SANTA and earning a patent for mud-crab hatchery technology.
“We achieved these due to our ventures in the early 2000s, new studies, tapping unexplored foreign markets, and going for conservation initiatives. MPEDA got Indian seafood branded even as RGCA, our development arm, facilitated the production of mud-crab seeds on commercial lines,” he said.
Noting that such achievements were a result of MPEDA’s modernisation, Mr Swamy observed, “Not only did it give way to higher exports, but we also went for massive promotional activities, researches and camps, besides organising virtual Buyer Seller Meets in all the major markets abroad during the pandemic, which boosted trade.
”Elaborating, he said, “As early as in the 1970s and ’80s, USA and Japan had become our major buyers, prompting MPEDA to open a Trade Promotion Office in Tokyo and New York. That was around the time we introduced commercial shrimp hatcheries, too.
”Wednesday’s function will also see the distribution of the MPEDA Export Awards for Outstanding Performance (2019-20 and 2020-21) under seven categories. These will go to the best manufacturer exporters of marine products based on an offline selection mode.
