Indian shrimp trade: reflections and prospects in the post–WTO era

Indian fisheries sector in view of its potential contribution to national income, nutritional security, employment opportunities, social objectives, and export earnings plays an important role in the socio-economic development of the country. The marine products exports contributed a whopping 7245 crores of foreign exchange to the exchequer during 2005–2006, which is one third of the total agricultural exports and 1.5 percent of the total GDP. Shrimps continue to be the predominant item in our marine export claiming about 29 and 67 percent in quantity and value terms share, respectively. Until recently, India depended heavily on one product (shrimp) and one market (Japan) for its marine products export and thus there is a need for product and market diversification. Shrimp export from India to the United States is also posing serious concern based on the restriction placed on the ground that these are not caught using turtle-excluding devices and with proper antidumping measures. The present study is an attempt to address the significance of the shrimp trade in the Indian seafood export basket based on the data collected for the period from 1979 to 2005 from different sources. The different export parameters like the growth, instability, competitiveness, dynamics of changes, integration, impediments faced, and prospects in the post-WTO framework are analyzed using econometric tools. The results of the study indicated that the trade liberalization initiated during 1991 had embarked improvement in the Indian shrimp export. However, recently, there is erosion in the competitiveness of Indian shrimp trade. Nevertheless, there are issues of concern due to the competitiveness, instability, and rejections on quality grounds. Infrastructure development, creating brand image, adoption of HACCP guidelines, value addition and antidumping measures, horizontal integration by ploughing in more area under shrimp farming considering the vast potential of unexploited brackish-water resources are the core issues, which need to be addressed.