Veraval (Gujarat), Aug 7 (ANI): China's threat to put ban on the seafood import from India has caused worry to exporters of Veraval in Gujarat.
One of the biggest export businesses of Gujarat is fishing but China's threat to stop fish import has upset fish exporters.
Reportedly, this decision came after Indian government decided to ban Chinese chocolates and milk products in India.
Although China has not confirmed it yet, a hint from the Chinese government has put Indian fish exporters in a fix.
"We send around about 70 to 80 percent of export to china. If china stops taking fish from us then it will be great blow to our business. Besides that Indian fishermen will suffer. Indian government will face loss in crores," said Jitubhai Kuhada, President of Veraval Fishermen Association. Veraval alone has over 3000 boats going into the deep sea for fishing and nearly 60 thousand fishermen are involved in this business.
"We export around one lakh twenty thousand ton of fish product mainly to china from Gujarat and it is being processed in 65 factories. There is near about one thousand crore (ten billion) export from Gujarat state alone, " said Nadeem Keshodwala, Seafood Exporter and Processor in Veraval.
The fish processing units in Veraval are of high quality and can match international standards be it quality of seafood and the packing.
However, some exporters are not so apprehensive as they believe that China cannot afford to ban the Indian seafood because India provides major portion of its seafood consumption.
Veraval is home to a number of fish processing factories and it exports prime quality seafood to USA, Japan, South East Asia, Gulf and EU countries.
Source : newstrackindia