Hyderabad: With US President Donald Trump’s reciprocatory tariffs impacting India’s seafood exports, aqua farmers in Andhra Pradesh are threatening to observe a crop holiday even as Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has swung into damage control mode. Andhra Pradesh supplies about 32 percent—the largest share from a state—of seafood exported from India.
This comes at a time when mountainous heaps of seafood, especially shrimp, already harvested or processed, are lying in cold storage.
US is the biggest importer of Indian seafood in value terms, with imports worth USD 2,549 million clocked in 2023-24, according to the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA), operating under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
Shrimp, a big industry in AP, forms over 90 percent of Indian seafood exports to the US. With a long coastline and conducive climates, AP is the leading producer of shrimps, reportedly accounting for 70 percent of total farming in the country. Around three lakh farmers are involved in aquaculture in AP, whereas an estimated 50 lakh are either directly or indirectly dependent on the sector, according to Naidu.
On Monday, the chief minister held a marathon consultation at the state secretariat with representatives of aqua farmers and exporters, along with state and MPEDA officials, on what he described as “an unforeseen, deep crisis”.
“Aqua is a key contributor in our GSDP and now it is staring at a big crisis,” Naidu said, while assuring the stakeholders that all possible efforts will be made to help them.
A day earlier, Naidu had shot off a letter to commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal, urging the Centre to help aqua farmers by exempting shrimp products from the US’s additional duties.
“Aqua farmers are facing heavy losses due to USA’s 27 percent import duty on shrimp exports from India,” the chief minister said in the letter, while noting that the US is imposing only 10 percent duty on imports from countries like Ecuador, “which indirectly harms India”.
Indian exporters are already bearing a 5.77 percent Countervailing Duty (CVD), the CM further wrote in his letter to Goyal, adding that “all these duties are put together, India is facing a 20 per cent duty difference compared to Ecuador”.
Seafood products already harvested based on previous orders are packed and lying in cold storage, but “following the new US regulations in effect from April 5, these stocks too are subject to additional duties”, Naidu further noted.
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‘We will sink into debt’
Speaking to ThePrint, Gandhi Bhagavan Raju, a shrimp farmer and president of the Jaibharat Ksheraarama Aqua Rythu Sangam, said that the 30-count shrimp variety (30 shrimp per kg), mainly exported to the US, is now being sought at Rs 380 per kg by processors and exporters, down from Rs 470.
“The processing industries say they have to bear the burden. But we will sink into debts, compelled to sell at such prices, having invested much on the costly feeds etc. With no other option, we have decided to go for a crop holiday,” Raju added, conveying the decision taken by his association Monday, even as the CM met with their sector representatives in Amaravati. “This is not to exert pressure on anyone, but for our survival…to save the aqua sector collapse.”
Allowing the present batches in the ponds to grow and be harvested, the three-month holiday will start in July.
The sangam unites the shrimp farmers of Palakollu, Narasapuram and Achanta assembly constituencies—the famous hub of royyala cheruvulu (shrimp ponds) in coastal AP. The shrimp farmers staged a protest at Palakollu Monday, blocking a road for sometime, demanding that they be rescued from Trump’s tariffs.
Shrimp cultivation and processing is a major industry in the undivided East and West Godavari, Krishna and Nellore districts.
Associations in other districts too are said to be exploring the option of crop holiday even as Naidu has asked the exporters to offer a remunerative price to the farmers.
These developments are pushing the state’s aqua sector into a deep crisis that will affect aqua farmers, hatcheries, feed mills, processors and exporters.
“Hence, I appeal to the Centre to hold necessary discussions with the US administration to include shrimp in the exemption list from duties,” Naidu said in his letter to Goyal, adding that “timely intervention by the Centre can safeguard the livelihood of lakhs of people who depend on the aqua sector”.
Naidu further said that in the European Union, Indian exporters face non-tariff barriers including 50 percent inspection rates and four to seven percent import duties. Countries like Vietnam, however, benefit from a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the European Union, enjoying zero-duty access. As a result, Vietnam and some other countries are effectively capturing the European market.
Countries like Vietnam, Thailand and Japan procure seafood from India, process it and re-export to the US, the chief minister said in his. “But due to the new high tariffs on final products, even those countries are cancelling their orders from India.”
At the meeting, exporters suggested that India go for FTAs with EU, South Korea etc., nations. The state government is forming a joint committee of farmers, exporters, hatcheries and shrimp feed producers, to suggest solutions to come out of the crisis.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)