Squids score over shrimps in exports; fish leads the pack

the goan I network
PANAJI

Fisheries Minister Vinoda Paliencar shared this information while replying a question tabled during the ongoing monsoon session of the assembly.
A source explained, "Over the years, the availability of shrimps has fallen tremendously. Consequently, even their demand has come down. Today, customers around the world eat all kinds of seafood, which wasn't the case earlier. This has resulted in a fall in shrimp exports."
Squids, which a few decades ago wouldn't find customers in the export markets, are the second highest seafood item to be exported from Goa today.
Mohd Asif from Indotech Ice & Cold Storage in Cuncolim said, "It takes a lot of time to process shrimps. Besides, you have to be more careful while handling shrimps and ensure that they are intact after cleaning. This slows down the process. Compared to this, squids are a lot easier to process."
As per the information

Shrimps dominated exports in June and July 2016 -- during fishing ban period
But in November 2016, frozen shrimp export
actually stood at nil
Frozen fish exports stood at zero in July 2016, as a reason of ban on fishing
Soon after the ban, 1,619 tonnes of fish exported in Aug, 4,931 tonnes in Sept and 7,944 tonnes in November provided by Paliencar, Goa exported 43,201 tonnes of marine products in 2016-17. At 32,135 tonnes of exports, frozen fish led the pack followed by 3,800 tonnes of shrimp exports.
This was followed by 2,400 tonnes of dried seafood exports, 2,254 tonnes of frozen cuttle fish and at the bottom was 1,841 tonnes export of frozen shrimps.
Paliencar also provided information about month-wise exports of seafood. Based on that, frozen shrimps dominated exports in two months of June 2016 and July 2016, when incidentally fishing was banned.
In November 2016, frozen shrimp export actually stood at nil. Several interesting trends emerge from month-wise breakup of exports.
For instance, frozen fish exports stood at zero in July 2016, which was perhaps due to ban on fishing. But, soon as ban came to an end, exports of fish started soaring. In August 2016, Goa exported 1,619 tonnes of fish, which jumped to 4,931 tonnes in September, ultimately peaking at 7,944 tonnes in November 2016. Paliencar further informed that Goa's seafood exports jumped to Rs 597 crores in 2016 from Rs 517 crore in the previous year.

2016-17
(Goa exported 43,201 tonnes of marine
products)
# SURGING SQUIDS
3,800 tonnes
# SHRINKING SHRIMPS
1,841 tonnes
# FISH ON TOP
32,135 tonnes
# DRIED SEAFOOD
2,400 tonnes
# CUTTLE FISH
2,254 tonnes