A competitive analysis of Indian fish export to USA: Growth, performance, comparative advantages and instability

Abstract

USA is the major export market destination for Indian fish and fishery products especially for crustaceans. The present study analyzed the status, export performance and competitiveness of Indian fish export to USA based on data (2000-2017) collected from UNCOMTRADE statistical database of United Nations. Trade balance revealed that the net trade for Indian fish export to USA was positive and the export has always been far greater than the imports. Compound Growth Rate (CGR) revealed that the seafood export grew at 18.22 % in terms of value with instability of 0.1 from 2000-2017. The average Unit Value Realization (UVR) was found highest in live fishes (15.62) followed by crustaceans (6.89) and others. Commodity wise Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) revealed that it is highly positive for crustaceans (7.87) followed by molluscs (2.74) and frozen fish (2.12) indicating that India has a strong comparative advantage in exporting these commodities to USA.