Impact of food safety regime on sustainability of fisheries sector: field level reflections from Kerala

The European Union ban on seafood products from India in 1997 caused a setback in the seafood industry of Kerala. Many processors had to divert their working capital resources for upgradation of their plants. This coupled with the uncertainty prevailed in the international markets regarding the food safety had adversely affected the fishery sector of the state. A large number of seafood units become sick and non-viable. The shift to integrated pre-processing by EU-approved processing facilities led to the closure of a significant number of independent pre-processing operations. It was also observed that concentration and consolidation are taking place at the processing node of the chain where the number of exporters has come down, and professional players are upgrading their position in the value chain. The most important aspect of the present chain is the gradual disappearance of the independent pre-processing sector which has been an important stakeholder of the fishery export chain. As a matter of fact, even after complying with the food safety requirements of the developed countries, the emergence of newfound standards and dynamic food safety environment are becoming detrimental to the sectoral sustainability of fisheries in the state.