PPT to resume export of seafood by Sept-end

OST Business Bureau
Paradip, Sep 18:
The export of sea food products from Paradip port, which had stopped for the last 15 years, will be resumed by September-end this year.

Chairman of Paradip Port Trust (PT) Sudhanshu Sekhara Mishar has assured the Seafood Exporters’ Association to extend all facilities, including a designated container yard for handling marine products and refrigerated container cargo.

Due to the stoppage of exports from Paradip, the exporters were using Kolkata and Visakhapatnam ports for exports of about 23,000 tonnes of marine products per annum with an additional expense of Rs 11 crore on transportation.
By using Paradip as the hub port instead Kolkata and Visakhapatnam, they can save the extra cost and avoid spoilage of cargo.

Seafood export from Odisha was Rs 903 crore in 2012-13, an increase of 14 per cent over Rs 792.75 crore in the previous year.
It may be mentioned that the Union Commerce ministry had declared Bhubaneswar as the city of export excellence for marine products in 2011.

Prior to the declaration, the PPT chairman had requested the Odisha government to make it mandatory for the state-based industries to ship at least 50 per cent of their cargo through Paradip.

The port has targeted doubling its existing annual handling capacity from 102 million tonnes to 252 million tonnes by 2020 with special emphasis on container traffic.