Indian fisheries sector plays an important

role in the socio-economic

development of the country, in view of

its potential contribution to national income,

nutritional security, employment

opportunities, social objectives and export

earnings

Ojha, S N

Shyam, S Salim

CMFRI Digital Repository

@ -:-__________ ....:... _____________ SOUTHERN ECONOMIST • Commodity Diversification and Geographic Concentration of Indian Seafood Exports Indian fisheries sector plays an impor-tant role in the socia-economic development of the country, in view of its potential contribution to national in-come, nutritional security, employment opportunities, social objectives and ex-port earnings, Fisheries sector con-tributes 4.3 per cent ;0 the agricultural GOP and export earnings are presently valued at over RS.6,790 crores from a volume of 4.3 Jakh Icnnes. Marine products form an important group of primary commodity exported from India accounting for about four per cent of the total export earnings. The important marine products exported from India are frozen shrimp, frozen lobster, frozen fish, frozen squid and frozen cut-tlefish. The five major markets contributing to the Indian exports include Japan, USA, European Union, South East Asia and Middle East. Internationally traded fisheries products are characterised by a high degree of heterogeneity, reflect-ing the wide range of species and processing techniques. Products from quite distinct species can nevertheless be in direct competition at market. Con-versely, similar fish products from the same family can command quite dif-ferent prices. The sea food industry in many countries are undergoing a rapid change to process more and more ready to cook and ready to eat in con-venient packs. Indian seafood indust,y, by and large, still remains as a supplier of raw materials to the preprocessors in foreign countries and 90 per cent goes in bulk packs, which is · the prime reason for the drastic reduction in the Mr. Shyam Salim, Scientist, and Mr. S.N. Ojha, Senior Scientist. both are from Central Institute of Fisheries Education, Mumbai. March IS,. 2004 By Shyam Salim and S.N, Ojha* unit value realisation. India depends heavily on the product (shrimp) and one market (Japan) for its marine products export and thus there is a need for product and market diversification. It is in this backdrop that the commodity. The commodity diversification and the geographic concentration of Indian fisheries export using the Gini-Hirschmann index suggested that there has been dynamism in export in commodities as well as markets from the traditional one commodity (shrimp) - one country (Japan) framework. concentration and geograp;)ic con-centration of Indian marine expons is being studied. The overail objectives of the proposed investigation is to study the commodity diversification and geographic concentration of Indian marine products exports during the two time periods of pre liberalisation (1979-1,990) and post liberalisation (1991-2002). Data and Methodology The study was based on the secon-dary data collected from various pub-lished Governmental and Non-Govemmental sources. The data pertaining to total quantity exported, their value in rupees and US dollars and their unit value realisation to the different market destinations were col-lected from the FAO yea, book of Fishery Statistics, Statistics of Marine · Export from India published. by .the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA-Cochin). Ministry of Commerce, Government of India and Marine Exports Review. The degree of commodity concentration and geographic concentration are measured using the Gini-Hirschmann index which defines the degree of con· . centrations in a country's export Cx,=100 -1f (Xi,)IX,))2 ;.' Where Xi' is the value of exports of the commodity j in year t and Xt is the total export earnings in that year. The highest possible value of the coefficient is 100 which indicates that the country exports only one producVcountry. Results and. Discussions The analysiS of the commodity con-centration arid the geographic con-centration of Indian fisheries export using the G1ni· Hirschmann index and the results are furnished in the Tables. The results indicated that the com-modity concentration has decreased during the post liberalisation period both in terms of value and quantity, which had results in, reduced the in-stability and widened the export basket. it is of significaot that during the post liberalisation period the commodity concentration has decreased from 65.68. to 57.46 per cent in terms of quantity and 82.70 to 71.04 per cent in terms of value indicating that the num-ber of commOdity and its share in total had increased. The increased number and share of commodity had reduced the commodity concentration in generating export earnings. The widening of the number of des-tinations/markets during the post liberalisation period as a results of the inclusion of more number of countries into " the European Union and high 23 SOUTHERN ECONOMIST ___________________ -----Table-l Commodity Concentration of Indian Marine Products Export Year Quantity (%) . Value(%) 1979 74.50 87.27 1984 66.64 84.25 1990 52.24 75.32 1996 57.87 73.32 2002 58.60 71.56 1979-1990(average) 65.68 82.70 1991-2002(average) 57.46 71.14 1979-2002 (average) 61.57 76.92 Table 2 Geographic Concentration of Indian Marine Products Export Year Quantity (%) Value(%) 1979 60.93 72.60 1984 54.33 69.66 1990 54.09 47.80 1996 38.68 54.92 2002 45.12 48.93 1979·1990(average) 55.01 66.79 1991·2002(average) 43.35 53.11 1979·2002 (average) 49.18 59.94 demand from South East Asian countries like China, Hong Kong, Thailand etc. and emergence of new markets in Latin American and African countries has reduced the geographic concentralion from 55.01 per cent to 43.35 per cent in terms of quantity and 66.76 per cent to 53.11 per cent in terms of value. Thus it could be noticed that there has been reduction in the geographic concentration during the post liberalisation period, which is a welcome sign as the dependency of ex-port earnings from a few countries to a sizable 101. Conclusion The analysis of the commodity diver· sification and the geographic con· centration of Indian fisheries export using the Gini-Hirschmann index sug· gested that there has been dynamism in export in commodities as well as markets from the traditional one com-modity (shrimp) - one country (Japan) framework. there has been consid-erable improvement in the commodity diversification and the geographic con· centration on comparing the two dif-ferent time periods. Modem approaches for diversification through value addition and collaborations with international firms may be explored in the fisheries export. References 1. Anonymous, -Raisdising Seafood Ex-ports·, Indian Seafood Industry Vol. 10(5). p-7, 1991. 2. Anonymous. -1995-96 A· Year of set-back for the Seafood Industry". Seafood Ex· port Journal, December. 1996 3. Anonymous, • Action plan to increase Seafood Exports· Seafood Export Joumal, Vol.pp. 27·29, September 2001. 4, Anonymous, -Indian Seafood Faces Danger of Another EU Ban·, Fisheries Wor/d, No.pp 4·5. February, 1999. 5. Coppock, J.~. International Economic Instability, New York, McGraw-Hili, 1962 6. Datta, K. Samar and Mllindo Chak-rabarti -A perspective of Global Competitive-ness of Indian Fish - The Case of Shrimp· Proceedings of the National Conference on Fisheries Economic Research and Educa-tion in India: An Overview, Edited by Shyam S. Salim, R.S. Biradar and S.N. Djha, hetd at CIFE, Mumbai, pp 85·93, 2001. 7. Khalaf. N.G., 1974, ·Country size and trade concentration" Journal of Develop-ment-Studies •. VoI.11., 1974. 8. Kin,gston, J.L., "Export concentration and export performance in developing countries·, Journal of Development Studies, Vot.12. 1976. 9. Love James., Trade concentration and export instability, Journal of. Development Studies, Vot. 15(3), 1979. 0 FAO Warning on Shrinking Agricultural Biodiversity and Overfishing Despite its crucial importance for the sur-vival of humanity, agricultural biodiver-sity is in ever-greater danger, the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAD) warned on December 3, 2003. At the 32nd session of its governing con-ference in Rome, FAD also reported that illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing worldwide appe~rs to be increasing as fishers seek to avoid stricter rules in many places in response to shrinking as fishers seek to avoid stricter rules in many places in response to shrinking catches and declining fish stocks. and efforts to combat the practice must be intensified. The agency stressed that of the es-timated 7,000 to 8,000 species that have been used in 10,000 years of agriculture, only 150 are cultivated today and no more 24 than four - wheat, maize, rice and potato - account for more than half of our food calories from plants. The Intemational Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources. adopted in 2001, aims to protect the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture and the fair and equitable benefits from their use. When signature closed on 4th November 2002, 77 countries and the European Union had signed the treaty. Some 33 States have currently ratiHed, accepted, approved or ac-ceded to the accord. The Treaty will enter into force 90 days after the 40th country ratifies it. To draw attention to the treaty's impor-tance, FAO organised a side-avent to the conference to answer questions about it in preparation for its entry into force, probably in early 2004. With regard to IUU, the agency warned in a report presented on 2nd December 2003: "The situation is particularly grave and forbidding given that some 75 per cent of world fisheries are already being fully exploited, overexploited, or depleted." Some IUU fishers operate in areas where fishing is not permitted while others employ banned technologies outlawed net types, or flaunt fishing regulations in other ways, FAO noted. Yet others under-report how big their catches are -'- or don't report them at all. In some cases, in fact, catches of commercially valuable fish species may be surpassing permitted levels by over 300 per cent due to IUU fishing, according to reports made to FAO. March 15, 2004 

Commodity diversification and geographic concentration of Indian seafood exports

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Commodity diversification and geographic concentration of Indian seafood exports

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