The shrimp export from the coastal states to the US, including Bengal, which had been under-hold since 2018-19, may start soon. Now, an American experts’ team is in Cochin, on site, to know if the fishing nets have TED (turtle excluder devices) fitted. The US refused to accept shrimps from India as it was proved in the tests that the shrimps were caught in nets that do not have TED.
ICAR-CIFT has come up with the design of fishing nets with TED following the directives of the United. A team of fisheries department officials is to travel to Cochin by 24th December to endorse the effectiveness of the TED fitted nets.
The US expert group was here in Cochin yesterday and it will be here until February 25. The TED corrected nets have been adjusted based on their advice. The fisheries department of the state believes that. On Tuesday, an official from MPEDA in Kolkata who is a senior person took off for Cochin. It is MPEDA, set up in 1972 under the Ministry of Commerce & Industry which promotes marine product exports from India.
Cultured shrimps from farms can be exported to the US now without entering TED. This way/However the big prawns caught at the sea cannot be exported without TED because the United States is intended to start using them. 80% of the Indian shrimp export is from farmed shrimp and 20% of it is sea-captured. The US is more of an importer, rather than an exporter, of Indian shrimp, and also consistently one of the top payers.
The coastal states, and West Bengal in particular, are the first to consider for resumption of export by the farmers to change their livelihood. Aside from Bengal, it includes states like Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Gujarat that are involved in seafood exports. If the new export opportunity is gained, it is anticipated that the seafood export earnings will rise by at least 15%. In Bengal, 85% of the shrimps are exported while only 15% of the population eat them
