(fis.com) Indian seafood exports to China must now be accompanied by a required inspection and quarantine certificate effective 1 June 2012. As India had not been included in the list of the approved countries to conduct business with China, exports to this country were stagnant during April and May.
The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) of China has now formally approved India’s request for an inspection and quarantine certification, such that seafood exports to China may soon resume, according to the Indian embassy in Beijing. The Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) and Export Inspection Council of India (EIC) had approached the Chinese authorities through the Indian embassy in May.
EIC will be issuing the required certificates.
Indian exporters last week stopped shipping their consignments to China from April, as it takes three to four weeks for the products to reach Chinese ports, Business Standard reports.
This pause in exports has had a dismal effect on the seafood sector of Gujarat, as the state is responsible for 70 per cent of the exports to China. The average annual export to China is 90,000 tonnes, or 11 per cent of total exports, valued at INR 11.51 billion (USD 203.2 million), which mainly includes low-value fish items.
India originally was not included in the list of countries that had conformed with AQSIQ for the export of aquatic products to China as a result of negligence from India’s government. China made their sellers aware of the new requirement a full year ago, Business Standard reports.
Chinese officials published the list of approved countries in October 2011, but India did not respond at that time. AQSIQ had approved 27 countries, of which seven are from Asia and include Vietnam, Thailand, Pakistan, Japan, Philippines, Myanmar and South Korea.
Ten nations are from Europe and seven countries from the Americas, Australia and New Zealand are also included.
India exported a total of 845,000 tonnes of seafood items valued at INR 16.824 billion (USD 2.97 billion) in 2011-12.