India’s seafood exports are doing extraordinarily well, hitting $7.45 billion in fiscal year 2025-26. This is up 17% in the first half of the year, which is quite an achievement considering that shipments to the US, India’s biggest seafood customer, dropped by 6%.
The boost mostly comes from bigger demand in Asian markets such as China, Vietnam, and Thailand, which made up for the shock due to US tariffs. Shrimp exports from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, which account for 80% of India’s shrimp exports, have had problems due to US tariffs but still help a lot to national seafood export income.
Seafood exports in the first half of 2025 hit about $3.97 billion, says the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA). That’s up from $3.39 billion during the same time last year. September 2025 alone saw a 23.4% increase in shipments to $781 million, thanks to holiday demand and the seafood industry trying to sell to different countries.
This was an attempt to make up for fewer exports to the US because of tariffs that started during the Trump administration. These tariffs raise the duty on Indian seafood to almost 60%, which hurts sales to the US, causing them to drop by almost 6% from April to September 2025.
The US buys about one-third of India’s seafood exports, which were worth $2.71 billion in 2024-25. Because the US has tariffs of about 59.7%, India started selling to other countries. Exports to China ($1.27 billion), Vietnam, Thailand, the EU, and Southeast Asia grew during this time.
China is buying a lot of Indian black tiger shrimp, about 28.43% by value. The US and EU are close behind. Thailand is also important as the fifth-largest market by value and a big buyer of frozen fish from India.
Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are big in the shrimp export business. Andhra Pradesh makes 80% of the country’s shrimp exports and 34% of total marine exports, worth about $2.5 billion each year. The US tariffs have hurt these states, with about $300 million in losses because of canceled orders.
About 3 million people in Andhra Pradesh rely on the shrimp export business. Even with these problems, seafood exports from these states are still growing because the government is helping and they are finding new markets.
Industry leaders say India needs to sell less raw seafood and instead add to it by making things like breaded squid rings and ready-to-eat seafood. Right now, India’s seafood exports with value added are worth about $742 million, which is less than China, Thailand, and Vietnam.
The government and research groups are helping startups in fisheries with money and ideas to help them do better worldwide. Improved processing, packaging, and creating special aquaculture areas are priorities to make India’s seafood exports better.
The Indian government is working to help businesses sell to different countries such as the EU, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and West Asia. The Fisheries Ministry wants exporters to make their processing plants better and use programs like the Fishery Infrastructure Development Fund. They are also trying to get free trade agreements to make it easier to sell to other countries and deal with tariffs from big markets like the US.
India’s seafood export industry is strong despite problems like high US tariffs. While Andhra Pradesh and Telangana’s shrimp exports to the US are taking a hit, the industry is still growing because it is selling to different countries, getting help from the government, and trying to add and improve their products. These plans show the Modi government’s promise to make India’s seafood export abilities stronger.
