Dramatic Catches Cut Indian Yellowfin Exports To EU ff

By Atuna

Indian export of yellowfin tuna to the European Union can be expected to be substantially lower this year as the trend of falling catches continues. According to Anwar Hashim, national president of the Indian Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI), catches of tuna in Indian coastal waters have been exceptionally low so far in the last months. “Normally we should have seen the catch rising in autumn. But the year has been very bad. This is a terrible situation considering the fact that prices this year almost doubled”, says Mr. Hashim in an interview with Atuna.com.

The disappointing catches of tuna have torpedoed Indians ambitious plans to double its export revenues from tuna fisheries. According to Mr. Hashim, the amount of tuna caught in the 2009-2010 season already dropped from 60.000 to 20.000 ton. The catch is mainly yellowfin and for a small part skipjack. The Indian Marine Exports Product Development Authority (MPEDA) had planned a growing export of frozen tuna to the European market and of sushi grade quality yellowfin for the Japanese market. According to Mr. Hashim hardly any of the recent catch was of enough quality for the Japanese export.

The downfall of yellowfin catch is a serious threat to the new fleet of around a thousand long liners that in the last three years was build up by converting existing trawlers. Before, the Indian tuna fleet mainly consisted of pole and line boats. Meanwhile, the investment in tuna processing and canning factories is ‘on hold’, according to Mr. Hashim. At this moment there is only a ‘handful’ processing and canning factories for tuna products.

“All our hope is now that the catch in the following three months will get better”, Mr. Hashim says. He expects that if catches will stay low, the exiting fishing and canning industry will switch to other species like sardine.

According to Mr. Hashim it is not yet clear what the consequences of the falling tuna catch will be for the Indian position in a possible future quota regime under the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC). Plans to sell part of the tuna catch to Sri Lanka, which has a special export regime with the EU as support for the recovery of the Tsunami, are suspended.

The last recorded six month figure until October showed a 16,5 % drop of export of frozen fish from India  of 132.353 tons to 110.546 tons. This is mainly ribbonfish and tuna.

According to Mr. Hashim, the disappointing tuna catch was partly compensated by a growing catch of mackerel.