Losses mount, fish exporters agree to virtual inspection of stock by China

Rajkot: After resisting for several months, the exporters of frozen fish have agreed to allow Chinese authorities to conduct virtual inspection of containers.
Thousands of containers have piled up at various ports of China, the biggest importer of frozen fish from India, after the country rejected them on the grounds that dead Covid-19 cells were found on the outer side of packaging material. As a result of this delay, payment of crores of the exporters was held up and their finances went haywire.
China has suspended the import from around 30 exporters from Gujarat in the last two months.
Earlier, the exporters had urged government of India to bring a a diplomatic solution as they have been following all Covid guidelines strictly and no country except China had objected to Indian fish.
According to exporters, China rejected their containers on finding dead nucleic acid material on the packaging material.
Jagdish Fofandi, president of Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI) said, “We are following all international standards in exporting frozen fish but still we have given our consent for virtual inspection and informed the central government about the same. China’s claims of finding dead nucleic acid material are baseless.”
According to SEAI, nearly 1,000 containers from India have been awaiting clearance at Chinese ports for months. As a result they are incurring huge losses as vessels have to pay demurrage, a charge that is payable to the shipping company for delay in cargo clearance.
Chinese buyers pay only after the stock gets cleared by their authorities and they receive it at their end.
Around 34 containers were returned in recent times after Chinese authorities rejected the stock.
Kenny Thomas, an exporter in Veraval, said, “The returned stock of fish are rendered useless as they are specially prepared for Chinese market and there are no alternate buyers. If the situation continues, we won’t buy fish from fishermen from next season.”
The fish catch from the entire Gujarat coast like Porbandar, Mangrol, south Gujarat, Diu, Okha comes to Veraval for processing and export. There are five lakh people directly getting employment from fishing.