MPEDA launches eSaNta portal for direct sale of aquafarm products to exporters

  • Minister Piyush Goyal inaugurates eSaNta that eliminates middlemen, ensuring fair prices and traceability

New Delhi, Apr 13: The Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) today launched an e-commerce portal that enables direct selling between the country’s aquafarmers and seafood processors/exporters, addressing a major concern of the farmers to ensure them fair prices and also boost exports of shrimps by ensuring their traceability.

Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Shri Piyush Goyal inaugurated eSaNta, which facilitates easy registration of farmers and buyers by fetching and validating details using MPEDA’s application programme interfaces.

Developed by National Centre for Sustainable Aquaculture (NaCSA), which is a society under the government-run MPEDA, the portal is available in six languages: Hindi, English, Telugu, Tamil, Bengali and Odiya.

The launch was done through a video conference, which was also attended by Union Ministers of State for Commerce and Industry Shri Som Parkash and Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, besides Commerce Secretary Shri Anup Wadhawan, MPEDA Chairman Shri K S Srinivas and NaCSA CEO Shri K S Rao.

‘Santa’ stands for “Solution for Augmenting NaCSA farmers’ Trade in Aquaculture”, but the word is conventionally used across southern India for weekly markets and congregation of people for sale/purchase of their produce. It is the equivalent of ‘Mandi’ in most parts of the country. More details at www.esanta.gov.in 

Shri Goyal, after performing the inaugural sale of the farmed shrimp on eSaNta, said the platform is initially designed for NaCSA-registered farmers and MPEDA-registered exporters. It will be extended to all aquafarmers in the near future, he added.

“By stopping the present marketing practice that involves middlemen who take away a good portion of the profit, eSaNta will put an end to the exploitation of small and marginal farmers,” he noted. “The portal permits the processors to directly approach the aquafarmers and procure the material.”

The stakeholders using eSaNta are the aquafarmers who produce the crops and the seafood processors/exporters who purchase the crop. The other stakeholder is NaCSA which facilitates and administers the portal.

At the ceremony, Shri Parkash facilitated the inaugural registration of an aquafarmer, and Shri Puri the inaugural registration of an exporter. Shri Wadhawan inaugurated the project management unit of eSaNta.

Shri Srinivas noted that the portal provides pan-India visibility to buyers about upcoming harvests and to farmers about the purchase preferences of the buyers. “It also gives advanced search options to buyers to explore the crop as well as a notice-board view of exporters’demand listing to farmers,” he revealed. “Further, eSaNta facilitates electronic negotiation (by SMS and email) between farmersand buyers, even as NaCSA acts as the facilitator for the entire transaction/sale.”

The platform is a complete end-to-end paperless system that also gives a 360-degree view of the crop, including its grading, certifications, lab reports. Being algorithm-driven, the platform is flexible, lending itself to adjust and manage. The payments are electronic, supported by Razor Pay. All the payments are escrow-protected and will be released to farmers based on the check systems.

Shri Rao said NaCSA typically works for the uplift of the small and marginal aquafarmers through organistion of clusters and maintaining best management practices in shrimp culture. NaCSA has so far registered 752 societies in eight maritime states with a farmer base of 18,211, covering 12,607 hectares of farm-water area and producing an annual average of 40000-50000 MT of L. vannamei shrimp.

The portal comes at a time when the export of marine products is increasingly becoming a significant foreign exchange earner to the country. During 2019-20, India exported 12,89,651 MT of seafood, earning Rs 46,663 crores. While shrimp is the principal commodity of marine exports basket, the frozen variety of the product contributed 69 per cent of the total quantity exported.

Aquaculture, especially of shrimp farms, in the coastal area contributes a vital share of exports. The year 2019-20 saw 5,64,321 MT of cultured shrimp exported, realizing Rs. 29,622 crore.

India’s shrimp aquaculture is concentrated in the nine coastal states: West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra and Gujarat. Of these, Andhra Pradesh alone accounts for more than 70 per cent of the production.

The major shrimp species farmed in the country is L. Vannamei (white leg shrimp), followed by Penaeus Monodon (black tiger shrimp). While there are 1.58 lakh hectares of farm in operation, authorities estimate that its potential can be raised by another one lakh hectares in the next five years. Shrimp aquaculture in the country is practiced by small-scale farmers, who traditionally depend on intermediaries in sourcing the inputs and for selling the produce. Shrimp farming, which requires high investment, incurs an average operational cost of Rs 12 lakh/ha.