Centre to certify shrimp farms

Frozen shrimp is India’s largest exported seafood item. It constituted 50.58% in quantity and 73.2% in terms of total U.S. dollar earnings from the sector during 2019-20.
Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu are India’s major shrimp producing States, and around 95% of the cultured shrimp produce is exported.
India exported frozen shrimp worth almost $5 billion in 2019-20, with the U.S. and China are the biggest buyers.
But a combination of factors had hurt export volumes in recent months, including container shortages and incidents of seafood consignments being rejected because of food safety concerns.

To bolster confidence in India’s frozen shrimp produce, the Marine Products Exports Development Authority (MPEDA) has kicked off a new scheme to certify hatcheries and farms that adopt good aquaculture practices.
The certification scheme for aquaculture products will be known as ‘Shaphari’, a Sanksrit word that means superior quality of fishery products suitable for human consumption.

The Shaphari scheme is based on the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization’s technical guidelines on aquaculture certification and will have two components — certifying hatcheries for the quality of their seeds and, separately, approving shrimp farms that adopt the requisite good practices.
The certification of hatcheries will help farmers easily identify good quality seed producers. Those who successfully clear multiple audits of their operations shall be granted a certificate for a period of two years.
The entire certification process will be online to minimise human errors and ensure higher credibility and transparency. Guidelines for certification of farms are under preparation in consultation with stakeholders.
Overall, certified aquaculture products will help exporters to export their consignments to markets under stringent food safety regulations without the fear of getting rejected.

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