A weaker rupee is good for Indian exports of seafood, according to an executive at a leading Indian processor and exporter. Labor costs are also flat, making India an increasingly attractive competitor for China in seafood processing, said Sachin Bhonde, head of export sales at Gadre Marine Export. He’s expecting a 20 percent year-on-year rise in his firm’s exports in 2013 thanks in large part to a weaker rupee.
India is currently struggling with a record current account deficit and the weakest economic growth in a decade. The rupee has lost 17 percent against the dollar so far this year, slumping to a record low of 66.30 to the dollar. Like other emerging markets, India’s markets have hit by a tapering off in the Federal Reserve's period of cheap money which has seen investors pull their money out of emerging markets back to enjoy the expected higher yields in the U.S.
Indian exports are geared to cash in on China’s embrace of Japanese style seafood and convenience food trends, prompting the firm to push hard for Chinese clients in 2013, said Bhonde. Processed from pink perch, the firm’s surimi will be competitive in 2013, predicts Bhonde, given perch landings have been “very good,” said Bhonde, who met Chinese clients at the recent Seafood Expo Asia.
Gadre’s largest customer is currently the U.S.-based Nashimoto group of wholesalers and restaurants. Meanwhile, India is also proving a market, with the spread of retailers like Walmart and Tata creating opportunities for surimi sales for Gadre, which currently gets 15 percent of its sales domestically.
Bhonde told SeafoodSource that exports are thriving because “the quality of Indian aquaculture has improved significantly in the past three years due to investment in technology in our processing sector and also our aquaculture.” He’s worried however that the current economic slowdown is affecting the expansion of aquaculture, with farmers starved of credit and worried about poor domestic demand.
Founded by Deepak Gadre in 1978, as a processing and packaging unit of frozen marine products, Gadre entered the surimi business in 2004 to supply a Korean business partner. The firm, which processed 20,000 metric tons (MT) of surimi in 2012, wants to cash in on demand in China while also tapping Korea and Japan, said Bhonde.
While Gadre claims to be the country’s first surimi producer, the sector has taken off in India, with the country’s share of global surimi output now at almost 10 percent percent, about 50,000 MT, according to Bhonde. The French-controlled East India Surimi Company ships 50 percent of output to Japan and Korea, with the rest going to Europe.
Gadre produces crab sticks, crab claws, crab flakes, lobster tails and shrimp tails as well as breaded batter crab claws. Used to mimic the texture and color of the meat of lobster, crab and other shellfish surimi is commonly consumed in Western markets as imitation crab meat.
India is currently struggling with a record current account deficit and the weakest economic growth in a decade. The rupee has lost 17 percent against the dollar so far this year, slumping to a record low of 66.30 to the dollar. Like other emerging markets, India’s markets have hit by a tapering off in the Federal Reserve's period of cheap money which has seen investors pull their money out of emerging markets back to enjoy the expected higher yields in the U.S.
Indian exports are geared to cash in on China’s embrace of Japanese style seafood and convenience food trends, prompting the firm to push hard for Chinese clients in 2013, said Bhonde. Processed from pink perch, the firm’s surimi will be competitive in 2013, predicts Bhonde, given perch landings have been “very good,” said Bhonde, who met Chinese clients at the recent Seafood Expo Asia.
Gadre’s largest customer is currently the U.S.-based Nashimoto group of wholesalers and restaurants. Meanwhile, India is also proving a market, with the spread of retailers like Walmart and Tata creating opportunities for surimi sales for Gadre, which currently gets 15 percent of its sales domestically.
Bhonde told SeafoodSource that exports are thriving because “the quality of Indian aquaculture has improved significantly in the past three years due to investment in technology in our processing sector and also our aquaculture.” He’s worried however that the current economic slowdown is affecting the expansion of aquaculture, with farmers starved of credit and worried about poor domestic demand.
Founded by Deepak Gadre in 1978, as a processing and packaging unit of frozen marine products, Gadre entered the surimi business in 2004 to supply a Korean business partner. The firm, which processed 20,000 metric tons (MT) of surimi in 2012, wants to cash in on demand in China while also tapping Korea and Japan, said Bhonde.
While Gadre claims to be the country’s first surimi producer, the sector has taken off in India, with the country’s share of global surimi output now at almost 10 percent percent, about 50,000 MT, according to Bhonde. The French-controlled East India Surimi Company ships 50 percent of output to Japan and Korea, with the rest going to Europe.
Gadre produces crab sticks, crab claws, crab flakes, lobster tails and shrimp tails as well as breaded batter crab claws. Used to mimic the texture and color of the meat of lobster, crab and other shellfish surimi is commonly consumed in Western markets as imitation crab meat.
