The Indian government has earmarked Rs 3,490 crore to develop fishing harbours and fish landing centres, aiming to propel seafood exports, which have doubled over the past decade to Rs 60,523.89 crore. Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Sarbananda Sonowal informed Parliament on Tuesday that this investment, channeled through the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY), will fund construction, modernization, and maintenance dredging of existing facilities over five years, from FY 2020-21 to FY 2024-25.

The initiative targets a seafood export turnover of $18 billion (Rs 1.57 lakh crore) by 2030, as outlined in the Marine Products Export Development Authority’s (MPEDA) Vision Document 2030. In FY 2023-24, India exported a record 17,81,602 metric tonnes of seafood, with the U.S. as the top buyer, followed by Southeast Asia and the EU. Sonowal highlighted additional projects worth Rs 651.14 crore under PMMSY and the Sagarmala scheme, upgrading harbours at Visakhapatnam, Chennai, Paradip, Cochin, and Mumbai Port with full central funding to strengthen the export value chain.

This follows a broader Rs 20,050 crore PMMSY commitment to the fisheries sector, credited for the export surge from Rs 30,213 crore in 2013-14. With India ranking third globally in fish production (174 lakh tonnes projected for FY 2022-23), the focus on infrastructure aims to sustain this growth, leveraging harbours as economic hubs. The allocation, detailed in responses to parliamentary queries, reflects a strategic push to modernize facilities, enhancing India’s competitive edge in a $150 billion global seafood market.