Report of inception workshop on globalisation and seafood trade legislation: The impact on poverty in India

DFID’s Post Harvest Fisheries Research Programme seeks to develop strategies and management systems to improve post harvest utilisation of fish in ways that will make an impact on lives of poor producers, processors, traders and consumers. “Globalisation & Seafood Trade Legislation – The Impact On Poverty In India” is the title of a project funded by DFID under the Post Harvest Fisheries Research Programme (PHFRP). Prior to finalisation of the project proposal, the collaborators – the Natural Resources Institute (NRI), Catalyst Management Services (CMS) and South Indian Federation of Fishermen Societies (SIFFS) – decided to meet with various possible stakeholders and key informants. An inception workshop was organised in Visakhapatnam, India, on 21 and 22 June 2001, of which this document is the record. The workshop started with a series of presentations including one on a related PHFRP project – “Changing Fish Utilisation and Its Impact on the Poor in India” by Integrated Marine Management Ltd (IMM). That was followed by identification of key issues. Against the background of these key issues, further short presentations were made (by selected workshop participants with relevant knowledge), based on which a shortlist of researchable issues was produced. Finally, it was agreed that no conclusive statements could be made on researchable issues and specific research sites for the fieldwork, given the limited information available. By end of October 2001, the research collaborators (SIFFS, CMS and NRI) will produce literature reviews to make full use of secondary information sources available to generate ideas about the key research issues and to avoid duplication of previous work. In addition, it was felt vital that fieldwork research activities should be co-ordinated and linked to the related PHFRP project “Changing Fish Utilisation and Its Impact on the Poor in India”. The key findings and recommendations from the scoping studies, conducted in the selected states of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Orissa, should feed into the final formulation of research issues and sites, to ensure integration and linkages given the limited resources available. The workshop ended with agreement among project collaborators on the ways forward, especially with regard to the literature reviews and initial fieldwork, to be finalised by the end of October 2001): a) Report on the Workshop (CMS, with inputs from NRI and SIFFS); b) An overview of international seafood legislation (NRI); c) A literature review of globalisation and sustainable livelihoods, with particular reference to the fishery sector (NRI); d) An analysis of trends in Indian seafood exports and trends in major markets (NRI); e) A review of the 1997 EU import ban on shrimp exports from India (SIFFS); f) Indian actions and re-actions to external Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary regulations and legislation, including a history of fish inspection in recent times (SIFFS); g) A review of export supply chains in Andhra Pradesh (SIFFS); h) A review of export supply chains in Kerala (SIFFS); and i) A review of export supply chains in Orissa (CMS). On completion of these studies, further detailed fieldwork will be undertaken in three selected states, beginning in Andhra Pradesh, followed by fieldwork in Orissa and Andhra Pradesh, Kerala