The Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) has reached its all-time high production across the country by exporting 10,51,243 metric tonnes of marine products, valued at Rs. 33,441.61 crore during 2014-15.
Andhra Pradesh played a major role in increasing the foreign exchange by exporting 2,79,727 metric tonnes of shrimp (worth nearly Rs. 13,000 crore), followed by Tamil Nadu (32,785 metric tonnes), Gujarat (30,156 metric tonnes) and Odisha with 22,539 MT. Besides shrimp, frozen fish, frozen varieties in cuttle fish and squid, live items, chilled items and dried fish are being exported. Shrimp culture indicated tremendous growth of 30.64 per cent of which L. Vannamei variety increased by 41 per cent in the country.
L. Vannamei is the most sought-after shrimp variety in international market. Nearly 42.77 per cent of Vannamei was exported to the US, followed by 20.46 per cent of exports to South East Asian countries, 17.45 to European Union, 4.55 to Middle East and 4.18 per cent to Japan.
Vannamei has shown a positive growth of 2,22,176 MT of USD 2372.80 million during 2014-15, when compared to 1,75,071 MT , worth 1,994.27 million during 2013-14, said MPEDA Chairman Leena Nair .MPEDA AP Deputy Director S. Kandan said shrimp was raised in more than 21,000 hectares in Nellore, Prakasham, Guntur and Krishna districts.
Macro and micro survey was taken up in brackish and fresh water areas to increase the production in the State.
The Fisheries Department, in association with MPEDA, has taken up a week-day survey from July 3 to identify the catchment areas and reservoirs for cage culture, particularly for raising tilapia fish in Andhra Pradesh.
2.79 lakh metric tonnes were exported to US, Japan and EU
