US, Europe demand for Indian seafood to rise from September: Exporters

New Delhi: Indian seafood exporters expect demand from the US and Europe to rise from next months. They also aim to replace Ecuador as a source of seafood for China after traces of coronavirus were found on its shrimp consignment recently.

“There is hope that demand from food service segment will revive in USA and Europe in the coming months. From September till December, we can expect Christmas demand too to pick up. Enquiries by importers have begun,” said Jagdish V Fofandi, president of Seafood Exporters Association of India.

Fofadi said that for seafood exporters, the Christmas season accounts for 25% of sales.


Ravi Kumar Yellanki, past president of Society of Aquaculture Professionals said that US and Europe seafood market has not shrunk and with Covid 19 cases going down, processing plants in India can be running at full capacity. "In the past few months we have seen that retail sales have increased considerably , making up for the drop in food services sale in US and European market."

Yellanki added that apart from US, the Chinese buyers were also making enquiries on prices and availability for shrimps and other seafoods. “I get a sense that in 10-15 days the Chinese will start ordering from India. They have recently rejected Ecuador’s shrimp consignment as there was Covid traces on the packaging,”he said.

The Marine Product Export Development Authority (MPEDA) , chairman, KS Srinivas said efforts were on to create new markets. According to MPEDA, India’s seafood exports fell by 7.39% in 2019-20 compared to the previous year at 12,89,651 tonne. It was valued at Rs 46,662.85 crore.