Entreprenurial Scenario of Seafood Industry in India

Fish and fishery products are highly traded commodities and nearly 40 per cent of the global fish production goes for international trade. There was a tremendous increase in the international trade of fish and fish products consequent to structural changes in the fishery sector contributed by technological innovations in harvest and post-harvest sectors, trade liberalization policies and increase in consumption. The advanced technologies for processing, packaging, storage, transportation coupled with substantial reductions in freight charges has promoted the international trade of new product forms and entry of new producers and traders to the global market. In 2009, trade in fish and fishery products represented about 12 percent of total agricultural exports (FAO,2010). Apart from providing foreign exchange earnings, fish and fish products trade is a significant contributor to the economy of developing countries through generation of employment in the secondary and tertiary sectors. In 2010, 75 percent of the value of fishery exports from developing countries was destined towards developed countries. A growing share of these exports consisted of processed fishery products prepared from imports of unprocessed fish to use as raw material for further processing. The developed countries thus gain comparative advantage in trade by way of utilizing the cheap raw materials and labour available in developing countries