The scenario of aquaculture in India will most certainly undergo dynamic changes as evidence of the expanding interest in the cultivation of Tilapia fish that is one of the most popularly consumed fish worldwide that include shrimps, tuna, and salmon all together. It is mostly the tilapia exporters that are attracted by this great opportunity for both domestic and foreign markets.
Tilapia is an ideal replacement for Basa fish imported widely in restaurants, which has a good texture and can be used in various cooking dishes. With the estimated production of around 3.5-4 million tonnes annually, tilapia allows India to diversify its aquaculture sector. YC Thampi Sam Raj, the project director at Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Aquaculture which is under the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA), instantiates the importance of genetically-improved farmed tilapia (GIFT) seed which has better growth capacity and consumes less costs.
Westcoast Group, the country’s main seafood exporter, has embarked upon extensive tilapia farming projects to increase its production substantially. Now, the operation is underway with 70 cages in two reservoirs in Pune already and a plan to expand to 2000 cages capable of providing 5 tonnes of fish each in the next two years. Though the global production of tilapia has been controlled by countries like China, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Taiwan, India’s contribution is relatively meagre, producing only about 15000 tonnes per year. Nevertheless, the country’s warm climate and an abundance of water have numerous development prospects.
In the domestic market, the price range of tilapia stands at ₹150-200 per kg. Its potential for getting exported, especially to US market where prices per kg range from $2 to $5 depending on size, is also promising the spread of tilapia farming in India indicates a new wave of growth and diversification for the aquaculture industry as the country already takes a larger share of seafood exports.