By Express News Service KOCHI: India’s efforts to achieve its ambitious goal of taking seafood exports to the next level got a major push on Sunday after the Marine Products Exports Development Authority (MPEDA) inaugurated its state-of-the-art microbiology laboratory at its headquarters here. This is MPEDA’s first such laboratory in Kerala. Unveiling the laboratory, Union Minister of State for Food Processing Industries Rameswar Teli said it will help the seafood sector in overcoming the stiff competition in the global export market, particularly on the quality front. MPEDA chairman K S Srinivas said the laboratory would be used to test all types of seafood at various stages, including during production and prior to export, to avoid any bacterial presence in seafood. “It will ensure that exporters do not face rejection of their products by any country on the grounds of substandard quality,” he said. The laboratory was necessitated by the fact that the US, the European Union and other major seafood importers were tightening quality norms on a regular basis in the interest of their citizens’ health. Teli expressed hope that all other sectors under the food processing industry would go for such a laboratory to ensure quality and give a fillip to exports. MPEDA unveiled the laboratory on the third and final day of the 22nd India International Seafood Show. MPEDA secretary B Sreekumar said the authority took just one year to set up the new lab from the conception stage. Other microbiology laboratories in India are at Bhimavaram and Nellore (Andhra Pradesh) and Bhubaneswar (Odisha). India International Seafood Show ends; 2022 summit in Kolkata Kochi: The 22nd India International Seafood Show concluded here on Sunday, showcasing latest technological interventions in aquaculture and deliberating on subjects that could give a fillip to the sector ahead of the summit in Kolkata in 2022. K S Srinivas, chairman of Marine Products Exports Development Authority (MPEDA), the organisers, said the brainstorming sessions boosted India’s aquafarming. On MPEDA’s proposal to renovate 25 fishing harbours in India, he said the plan was to start the D2,500-crore project by upgrading the ones at Thoppumpady here and Nizampatnam in Andhra Pradesh.

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