India Dreams Of Local Tuna For USD 20 Per Kgff

India will become the number one destination for tuna fishing as the international community is turning towards it for the tuna fish which has a great demand in Europe and the USA, Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) chairman G Mohan Kumar has said. Participating in a function where converted tuna long line fishing vessels were flagged off at the fishing harbor here, Mohan Kumar said India would be the largest exporter of tuna fish even as more and more fishing trawlers get converted to tuna long line fishing vessels for tapping the massive tuna resources in the deep sea.

In the next eight months and beyond tuna will be popularized in the country at the government level by advocating conversion of fishing trawlers into tuna-tapping vessels. Besides, MPEDA is extending 50 percent subsidy to those who opt for the conversion scheme which costs about Rs 30 lakh.

The MPEDA chairman hoped for the day when Indian tuna would sell for $ 20 a kg against the current USD 1 a kg. He assured that all problems being faced by the tuna exporters would be addressed and tuna fishing would be made hastle-free. Earlier, Kuruvilla Thomas, director (marketing), MPEDA said that by the year 2012 India would be able to export USD 500 million worth of tuna fish. He said the conversion process started in 2002 with just two vessels and the number shot up to six in 2006.