Indian Seafood exports: Issues of instability, commodity concentration and geographical spread.

Abstract

Fluctuations in fish production from capture and culture, varlalions 111 lnternat~onal prices. adjustments in exchange rates and finally - the var~ablc values 01' export earnings are grlm concerns for developing countries of South Asia and Soul11 East Asia. Most of the developing countries (including India) obtain thu~r niaj~,r share of export earnlngs from selected few items or commodities and the trade is concentrated with a couple of nations. These developing coutitrics as commodity producers and exporlers have hardly any instruments at their disposal to licdge ag,ainst the adverse effects of instabiltty of export earntngs. Managing commodity prlcu risk and stabilising export earnings are still important policy issues for virtually all low Income and commodity exporting countrlcs (Pal. 1992). Imperative effects of variability of export earnings at the macroeconomic level are, disruptions in the investment planning process, misallocation ol'rcsou~ccs and disturbances of the internal balance of public finances, impacts on tlic ratc of domestic savings, increastng internal and external indebtedness and problen~s ill tl~c balance of payments, which might result in unstable earnings and discourage fanners liom producing for export and can lead to a "further" fall in export earnlngr and gross National Product (GNP). The export oriented producers who suffer from eartilng shortfall, will also cut back their consumption, which affects the puhlic finances I'hc perslstencc of abnormally depressed prices globally dur~ng the 1980s has also resulted in a sharp reduction in the living standards of developing coutitries 'l'hu> the export-earning instability has to be considered as a development probleni becaurc it dampens the growth rate, particularly as a result of its negative effect on product~vity of capital. Considering the strengths of Indian fisheries sector and steady development in the past four decades, the causes of instabilities in production and cxpon of sealhod assume immense Importance in the ccanamic scenarto of India and hence the present stud> was conducted wlth the follou~ng ohjectivcs: (1) 7'0 compute concelllralion measures such as commodity concentrdtlon and geographic concent ration coefficients (br) lndian seafood exports. (2) lo estimate the ~nstability indices for seafood exports from India and (3) '1 o determine the s~gnifica~~t factors that aflbct the instability in xafood exports from lndla Tlic paper is arranged as fbllows Sectlo11 I1 d~scusses the structure and pattern of firlieries dcvelop~nent In lndia durlng the past four decndes The tli~rd rectlon deal, \*1t11 data and transformation prc~cedl~rcs Sect~on IV descrthcs the theoretical and computational framework. Sectlon V prcscnts the resullr and thc final sectloll gives a summary of findings and d~scusses pollcy alternatives