India shrimp exports fall sharply post-tsunami

The country's marine exports have dipped sharply ever since the tsunami struck India's vast coastline.
" On the heels of the December 2004 tsunami, according to the most recently compiled statistics, U.S. shrimp imports from India dropped 57 percent in January and February compared to 2004.
Shrimp imports to the US from Thailand dropped 27 percent during the same timeframe," according to a report by the Consuming Industries Trade Action Coalition (CTAC) based in Washington, D.C., fighting against the imposition of anti-dumping duties on shrimp from countries such as India and Thailand.
" The export performance in the succeeding months was even worse. The prices in the domestic and international markets plummeted and the exporters liquidated their stocks. The aquaculture farmers barely got prices to cover their costs. Given the uncertainties in the market, it is doubtful if the farmer will begin stocking his aquaculture farm in the coming season," sources in the Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI) said.
Exporters to the US have also been badly affected. With shrimp importers into the US from countries such as India having to pay up duty before hand, a large number of Indian exporters have withdrawn from the market. Only about five percent of the shrimp exporters to the US are big-league players in the market.
But these players have aggressively begun acting as the ‘importers on record' in the US, opening subsidiary units to undertake their import operations, opening warehouses and diverting their consignments from bulk importers to retail processors to realize better value, and commenced distributing their products in small retail packs. But the large numbers of small exporters had shown no signs of returning to the market, sources in SEAI said.
Meanwhile, the US-based International Trade Commission decision to launch a 120-day changed circumstances review that could lead to the revocation of duties on shrimp imports from India and Thailand as a result of the damage caused by the tsunami has been welcomed by Wally Stevens, Chairman of the CITAC Shrimp Task Force.
He said: "We support the ITC's decision to investigate whether or not shrimp imports from India and Thailand still pose any kind of ‘threat' to the domestic shrimp industry."
The Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA) statement that they alone should not bear `the burden' of helping these countries, but that all Americans should share the burden of providing tsunami relief, rings hollow since duties collected on shrimp imports only benefit the shrimp industry. Thanks to the Byrd Amendment, the money collected from the tax on shrimp imports is now redirected from the US Treasury, where it would have benefited all Americans, straight to the pockets of SSA members, Mr Stevens said. And American consumers are now paying more for the shrimp that they consume.
CITAC and the American Seafood Distributors Association (ASDA) formed the CITAC/ASDA Shrimp Task Force to promote the interests of U.S. grocers, restaurants, processors, distributors, business councils and U.S. importers.
" If lifting the duties on India and Thailand could benefit tsunami victims without hurting the US shrimp industry, then the obvious, rational action is to terminate this tax," Mr Stevens pointed out.

Source: C.J. Punnathara, The Hindu Business Line