High-Value Tuna: George Kurien, Union Minister of State, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, says there is a lot of scope for fisheries and tourism in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. There are also a lot of resources. Proximity to Southeast Asian countries and the sea and air trade facility make it more capable.
At present, seafood export from India is about Rs 65 thousand crore. But soon preparations are underway to touch the target of Rs 1 lakh crore. Shrimp has the highest contribution to this. And now the help of tuna is being taken to touch this target. This is the reason why Investors Meet is being organized in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The investor’s meeting started today. The meeting is being organized by the Union Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying.
On this occasion, Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairy Ministry, Rajiv Ranjan Singh said that today the tuna business in the world is worth $40 billion. Whereas, tuna fish is abundant in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. There is an exclusive economic zone of six lakh square kilometers here. There are 60 thousand metric tons of high-value tuna here. Which includes yellowfin 24 thousand and skipjack two thousand metric tons. But at present only 4420 metric tons of tuna fish is being caught.
Preparations are being made to sell Andaman tuna abroad.
The Department of Fisheries, Government of India has recently started creating tuna clusters in Andaman and Nicobar Islands under (PMSSY). The benefit of this will be that it will be easy to work on strengthening transport in tuna fish farming, promoting competition at the global level, creating infrastructure, investor participation, training, and investment in capacity building.
On this occasion, the Union Minister said that there is full scope to increase exports from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Not only this, there is a need to promote deep-sea fishing and develop processing facilities to achieve the export target. He also talked about the construction of modern fishing infrastructure in Andaman and Nicobar.
On the other hand, Lieutenant Governor Admiral DK Joshi, while talking about the major challenges facing the fisheries sector, said that there were logistics issues due to limited connectivity with Southeast Asia, delays in trade clearance due to lack of MPEDA and EIC offices (Chennai is the nearest office). There is a lack of better transport infrastructure.
However, to deal with these challenges, a direct flight connecting Kuala Lumpur, Indonesia with Southeast Asia from Andaman and Nicobar Islands is going to be inaugurated on November 16, 2024. Also, MPEDA and EIC have set up desk offices in Port Blair to promote seafood exports from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. This will expedite the process of trade clearance and facilitate smooth operations.
Experts on Tuna Fishing and Seaweed Technology attended the meeting.
Investors from different parts of the country having expertise in technology related to Tuna Fishing and Seaweed Technology also participated in the event.
The experts who participated include Merchant Ventures Private Limited, Mumbai, Uday Aqua Connects Private Limited, Hyderabad, Sams Discus India, Mumbai, Aqualine Exports, Kerala, ANEMCO Private Limited, Sri Vijaya Puram, C6 Energy Private Limited, Bangalore, S Raja Rao Sea Foods, Sri Vijaya Puram, Jocons Marine Exports Private Limited, Goa, Neela Marine Exports, Sri Vijaya Puram, Low Now Cargo Import Limited, Thailand, Babla Pearls, Mumbai, Continental Marine, Visakhapatnam Limited, Mysore, Motherhood Foods, Bangalore, Jilani Marine Products, Ratnagiri, Z A Food Products, Kolkata, Canares Aquaculture LLP, Karnataka and Blue Catch, Mumbai.