India's shrimp farmers are not a happy bunch. Despite shrimp accounting for nearly 75 percent of India’s seafood exports which stood at over Rs 70,000 crore in 2022, the farmers are struggling for survival. With wafer-thin margins and rising costs of production, shrimp farmers in Surat are praying the Finance Minister will throw them a lifeline in Budget 2023 — a lifeline that addresses their real problems.

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India produces around 9 lakh tonnes of shrimp every year making it the biggest contributor to India's $7.8 billion fisheries export sector. Many were hoping things would improve as the restrictions due to COVID-19 eased... but the last couple of years have brought a different set of troubles.

A capital-intensive exercise, shrimp farming needs an investment of Rs 15-20 lakh per hectare. But for Surat's shrimp farmers, production costs have gone up by nearly 35 percent. Meanwhile, selling prices have fallen 25 percent thanks to the global economic slowdown, and China's prolonged COVID-19 restrictions. Exports too have fallen by nearly 15 percent in the past year.

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These farmers are now hoping that the government will throw them a life-line... but after years of being disappointed, even this hope is fading.

That's not to say that the government has been blind and deaf to their plight. Last year, it reduced duty on certain inputs for shrimp farming... but the industry says a lot more needs to be done to lower production costs.

Nearly 99 percent of India's shrimp produced is exported. But with exports proving vulnerable, the industry is hoping for help in tapping into the domestic market.

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Farmers add that any help in increasing the area under shrimp farming can also transform shrimp farming into a mammoth industry. For instance, Gujarat alone has 3.75 lakh hectares of land that's suitable for shrimp farming... but only 2.5 percent of this is actually being used currently. And if the factors line up, Gujarat alone has the potential to produce more than 3.4 lakh tonnes of shrimp a year, and provide employment to over one lakh people.