Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: Union Minister for fisheries, animal husbandry & dairying, Rajiv Ranjan Singh on September 11 said the Government is focusing on increasing annual seafood exports to Rs 1 lakh crore. Rajiv Ranjan was addressing an event to mark the 4th Anniversary of Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojna (PMMSY) here.
He also launched Pradhan Mantri Matsya Kisan Samridhi Sah-Yojna, and released the standard operating procedure on production and processing clusters in the fisheries sector.
Rajiv Ranjan noted that the fisheries sector, which provides livelihood for more than 3 crore fishers and fish farmers, did not get due attention since independence.
Rajiv Ranjan said the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Government has taken various decisions since 2014 for the growth of this important sector, including the launch of the PMSSY scheme with an outlay of over Rs 20,000 crore.
As a result of these measures, he highlighted that the country’s fish production has increased to 175.45 lakh tonnes in 2023-24 from 95.79 lakh tonnes in 2013-14.
He said that with the help of funds under the PMSSY, there had been a lot of infrastructure development and technological improvement in the fishery sector.
Rajiv Ranjan also stressed on the need to strengthen the foundation of this sector and said the Government will focus on that over the next five years so that it can contribute to the overall target of making India a developed nation by 2029.
He said that the country is exporting seafood worth over Rs 60,000 crore to around 130 countries and the target is to grow this number to Rs 1 lakh crore annually. He, however, did not give any timeline for achieving this target.
