Suggesting that the Central government consider including shrimp in the food of the Indian Army, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has written to Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal to protect the aqua sector. He sought urgent intervention to address the crisis facing aqua farmers and shrimp exporters in Andhra Pradesh because of steep tariffs imposed by the U.S. on shrimp exports.

The Chief Minister said the 50% tariff imposed by the U.S. on shrimp imports had resulted in an overall tax burden of nearly 60% on Indian exports, severely hitting Andhra Pradesh’s aqua sector. He warned that the State’s annual aqua exports, worth nearly ₹25,000 crore, could face heavy losses.

Mr. Naidu said about 2.5 lakh aqua farmer families and more than 30 lakh workers dependent on the sector were at risk of losing their livelihoods. Domestic aqua product prices had fallen by 20% to 25%, he added.

The Chief Minister said the State government had reduced shrimp feed costs by ₹9 per kg, and was supplying electricity to aqua farmers at ₹1.50 per unit.

He urged the Centre to increase working capital limits by 30%, grant a 240-day moratorium on interest payments, and temporarily exempt the sector from 5% interest and GST. Mr. Naidu also sought negotiations with the U.S. to reduce tariffs, and an expansion into alternative markets such as Russia, the European Union, and Australia.

He also asked the Centre to raise the Kisan Credit Card limit to ₹1 lakh for aqua farmers, and run special rail services to transport shrimp to northern States. In a separate letter to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Mr. Naidu sought a ₹100-crore corpus through the National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB) for a prawn producers coordination committee, and an additional regional fisheries institute in Andhra Pradesh.