Fishery has been a traditional occupation in India and both marine and inland fishery has been practised. But till Independence Indian production was just sufficient to meet its domestic requirements and no much surplus was available for export. After 1950-51, India could make beginning in the exports of marine products. India had been exporting many items since long during British period. They were Jute textiles, tea, coffee cashew, tobacco, oilcakes, spices etc. which were considered as "Traditional" items of exports. The items which are being exported after Independence and after the beginning of Five Year Plan period are generally referred to as "Non-traditional" items. The marine products are, therefore, considered as "Non-traditional" items of export. In the year, 1951-52, the fish production was 7.52 lakh tonne, of which 0.22 lakhs tonnes (about 2.9%) was exported. This export was less than one percent (0.45%) of the total export value of India. But there after fish production in India, both marine as well as inland made rapid progress due to development of technologies in the field of production, transport (insulated Vans), cold storages, processing and marketing. Consequent upon increase in production, exports also rose more rapidly and achieved great success.

Production and export of fish

The production and export of fish and fish production from India is given in Table1.

Fish production which was merge 7.52 lakh tonnes in 1950-51 has increased upto 52.90 lakh tonnes in 1998-99. Similarly, the exports also increased steadily over the same period from 0.22 lakh tonnes to 3.12 lakh tonnes more important is the proportion of exports to production. In 1950-51, India could export less than three percent (2.90%) of its production of fish. But this proportion has constantly increased to 4%, 5% and reached to about 6%. This meant that our fish production has increased so much that we could afford to export large proportion year after year after fulfilling the huge domestic demand.

Export, value and prices realisation

Main objective of any export is to earn much needed foreign exchange for the country. Therefore value of exports has special significance. The value depends on two factors (1) quantity of exports, (2) prices realised (See Table2.) for the first two decades, the prices were relatively low, though there was some rise from Rs. 1.50 per kg to Rs. 12 per kg. During this period both quantity of exports and prices being low values of exports were also small. But after 1970-71, prices increased and consequently the values of exports made galloping progress. Prices increased from Rs. 30 per kg in 1980-81 to Rs. 138.78 per kg in the latest year of 1998-99. The values correspondingly increased from Rs. 324 crores to Rs. 4330 crores. Now the export values realised from fisheries is a point to be reckoned in Indian export in general and agricultural exports in particular.

Table 2.
Trends in Export value and prices realised in marine product exports

Ag.
Technologies
(Fisheries)