By IANS
Kochi (Kerala) : India's profit-making seafood industry has suffered a loss of over Rs.5 billion on its exports after the recent surge of the rupee.
In a statement Tuesday, A.J. Tharakan, president of the Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI), asked the central government to provide incentives to offset the loss and put in place some mechanism whereby the burden of high bank interest is reduced.
"Today's appreciation of rupee has caused 100 times more damage than the tsunami of 2004. The appreciation of rupee has resulted in loss of over Rs.5 billion to exporters on existing stock," Tharakan said.
"The shrimp exports from India which account for almost a billion US dollar has been in a state of crisis for the last two years and therefore, some form of relief from the government is urgently required," he added.
"The situation has aggravated due to the imposition of anti-dumping duty in US for the Indian shrimp. Due to the anti-dumping action by the US, the number of shrimp exporters from India to US has come down from 258 in 2001 to 80 in 2007," he added.
According to the SEAI, the situation is grave because over 16,200 fishing vessels, 120,000 country crafts and 2 million fishermen depend on the seafood industry.
India's seafood exports in 2005-06 were Rs.72.45 billion.