The Philippines and India are looking at enormous opportunity for trade cooperation on marine fishery and aquaculture starting off with Philippines’ potential investments in putting up tuna processing facilities in India or importing its needed tuna raw materials from India.
During the India Philippines Marine Fisheries and Aquaculture virtual business conference on Thursday attended by representatives of India’s fishery industry and the Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Fisheries Inc., Indian Ambassador to the Philippines Shambhu Kumaran highlighted that India is looking at investment and technology exchange in fisheries with the Philippines.
“It will be the start of a long process of linking to raise productivity. We invite you to look at business opportunities in India,” Kumaran said.
He said India and the Philippines have enormous opportunities to learn together, exchange technologies, build capacity, and enact policies that can support both countries’ fisheries sectors.
“In the post Covid world, health security is really important. But equally important is food security. We must work together to make our food more climate resilient and supply chain more stronger… more vibrant and dynamic,” Kumaran said.
In particular, there is a huge opportunity for tuna value addition in India as it produces largely tuna ready for canning, according to Cherian Kurian, managing director of India’s M/S HIC ABF Special Foods. This is where Philippines’ global leadership in tuna processing and canning comes in.
Tuna is one of the Philippines’ largest seafood export with a yearly value of $350 to $400 million.
Frabelle Fishing Corp. President Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said tuna fishing in India is also a potential opportunity for local fish producers.
“(The Philippine) Tuna fleet is willing to expand when they’re welcome to fish,” Laurel said, noting that local tuna processors-canners can put up canning facilities in India.
However, it may be more advantageous to import India’s raw tuna production and process these locally, said Francisco Buencamino, Tuna Canners Association of the Philippines executive director. This is mainly because the Philippines has preferential duty privileges to the European Union for tuna export.
Kurian noted that India’s oceanic tuna resource potential within its exclusive economic zone reaches 2.13 million metric tons (MT) with yellowfin taking up 54 percent and skipjack 40 percent. He added that India can start exporting tuna to the Philippines in bigger volume. Doing so, the Philippines can maximize its processing-canning capabilities.
Another area of cooperation is shrimp as India may extend technology and research and development (R&D) to the Philippines that suffers from difficulty handling shrimp diseases.
India is the world’s largest shrimp producer and exporter particularly the vannamei species. It exports 90 percent of shrimp production with almost 50 percent to the United States.
However, there is still 9.7 million hectares of potential shrimp area in India. Of the total figure, 8.5 million hectares are waterlogged saline areas and 1.2 million hectares are brackishwater.
For his part, Miguel Rene Dominguez, Alsons Agribusiness Unit vice president, said there is an opportunity to raise productivity in shrimp and mangrove crab production in the Philippines. India’s technology expertise in these technologies may potentially help raise Philippines’ shrimp and mangrove crab production.
For the Philippines, there is a huge opportunity in finfish, shrimp and crab, Dominguez said.
“The Philippines has a rich reservoir of resources both physical and know-how for aquaculture development,” he noted.
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