India's seafood exports for the fiscal year 2025-26 reached an all-time high of 19.72 lakh metric tonnes (MT), as per new data released by the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) on Monday.
Amounting to ₹73,890 crore ($8.46 billion), this export milestone comes despite the war in the Gulf, which has crossed three months, and has impacted supply chains across the globe.
“To tide over global headwinds, we have also diversified our export base and boosted the export of lower-value products,” noted P. Jawahar, Chairman, MPEDA, at a press conference.
“The marginal reduction of two percentage points in the export share to the top countries further indicates how we are diversifying to countries like China, the EU, and Vietnam, amid the global supply chain crisis,” he added.
The United States continued to be the top overseas importer of Indian seafood in FY2026, with a total volume of 2.79 lakh MT, valued at about ₹20,263 crore.
However, exports to the US decreased by around 11 per cent in rupee value, the MPEDA statement noted.
China also remains the top importer by volume, with a whopping 4.90 lakh MT worth about $1.61 billion.
Frozen shrimp was again the top commodity exported last fiscal, with a total volume of 7.93 lakh MT, accounting for 40 per cent of India’s seafood exports—reflecting a 13 per cent year-on-year growth in rupee value.
The US also emerged as the biggest market for frozen shrimp with an import volume of 2.56 lakh MT, followed by China with about 1.69 lakh MT and the European Union as a whole with about 1.35 lakh MT.
Notably, the Black Tiger shrimp and Whiteleg shrimp (L. vannamei) are two commodities that have shown strong growth in both volume and value from FY2025 to FY2026.
Frozen fish came second, generating ₹5,658 crore, with dried items earning ₹5,079 crore, and even showing a positive export trend of 78.05 per cent in terms of rupee value.
In general, the export of chilled items brought in around ₹622 crore, while that for live items came to ₹545 crore.
Also, the Visakhapatnam Port in Andhra Pradesh, the Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Maharashtra, and the Cochin Port in Kerala emerged as the top three ports in the export of seafood cargo, followed by two in Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.
They account for nearly 68 per cent of India’s total export value, highlighting their continued importance in India’s seafood export supply chain.
This comes amid the Centre’s five-year plan to “sharpen India’s global seafood strategy” by focusing on higher‑value exports, wider market reach, and stronger quality assurance.
The idea is to scale exports to the UK, EU, ASEAN and the Middle East, while also developing inland export hubs and freshwater supply chains so that even the landlocked states can contribute to the growing global demand, in line with the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY).
