A
Buoyant Bengal
In
conversation with Binny Sabharwal, Anil Sen, MD, Calcutta Seafoods airs
his concerns about the incompetent policy structures that govern the
seafood business in India
Seafood
export from India started in 1961 in a very small proportion mainly
from Cochin.
Subsequently the idea of exporting marine products gripped all maritime
states in India including Mumbai, Chennai, Vishakapatnam, Orissa and
West Bengal. Calcutta Seafoods started processing seafood, mainly shrimps
and pomfret fish from Calcutta in 1971. Today the group has five seafood
processing units in and around
Calcutta with an approximate turnover of Rs 100 crore. All these units
are 100 per cent export oriented units catering to the US, UK, Japan,
Middle East and the South East Asian markets.
We zoom in on the company’s varied processing and marketing strategies
in our conversation with Mr Sen.
What are the seafood products that your five
units manufacture, and under what brand names. Also, where are these
units located?
We have, in all, five units based in and around
Kolkata. Two units are in Kolkata itself, two are near the airport,
and one unit is based at a distance of 35 km from the city.
All these units mainly manufacture shrimp based products. Fishes like
pomfret, other sea fishes and fresh water fishes like rohu are also
processed at these facilities. We produce and market our products under
three brands namely Ganges Queen, Royal Bengal and Roser.
From where do you source your regular supply
of raw seafood?
When we started operations in this segment in 1971,
we used to get our supply from the coastal regions of West Bengal and
through brackish water farming in the 24 Pargana districts. Though brackish
water farming is very popular today in coastal Orissa, Andhra Pradesh,
Tamil Nadu and Kerala, it is originally a very old method of farming
tiger prawns in West Bengal and has been used since the last 50 years.
In West Bengal we also have freshwater shrimps (scampi) in all the water
bodies, even in inland districts in West Bengal.
What sort of quality accreditations have you
received to export your products in the foreign markets?
It is true that we do not sell any of our products domestically.
Our units are approved by the European Union and the USFDA (Food and
Drug Administration). Our units and facilities are also HACCP and ISO9002
certified. We follow very strict safety regulations like labelling and
certification, which are regularly checked by the Export Inspection
Council of India...
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