Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) [India], June 5 (ANI): Union Minister for Food Processing Industries Chirag Paswan on Friday said India's seafood sector has significant potential for expansion through processing and value addition, stressing the need to move beyond exporting raw fish and focus on ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook products to meet rising global demand.

Speaking on the sidelines of the National Workshop on Seafood Exports in Visakhapatnam, Paswan said increased processing would help strengthen the sector and support the government's vision of positioning India as a global food basket.

Speaking to ANI, Paswan said, 'After having the interaction with all the stakeholders concerning the seafood industry, we have realised that there's a huge scope of processing in this sector. Rather than exporting raw fish, in today's time, the way demand is increasing is for ready-to-eat, ready-to-cook, value-added products.'

'So, that is something which even the state government under the leadership of CM Chandrababu Naidu and also the way the Prime Minister is looking at this sector and eventually wants to present India as a global food basket. So, these are certain pointers on which we are having a two-day interaction with the industry, all the concerned stakeholders. And I'm sure that in the coming days, the processing will also increase multifold in the seafood sector,' he further said.

Earlier, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal, who was also present at the moment, stated that the performance underscores domestic resilience amid international challenges.

'Even in dollar terms, from 2014 to 2025, India's seafood exports increased by 70%, whereas the world international trade on seafood increased by barely 12-12.5%, clearly demonstrating the capabilities of our fishermen, the wonderful work that our stakeholders related to this sector, whether they are processors, whether they are exporters, all of them are doing,' Goyal said.

'It encourages us that even in a year of global turmoil, if we could see 14-15% growth, clearly it shows that there's huge potential in this industry,' he added. (ANI)