Odisha with a coastline of 480 KMs is ideally suited for the development of sea food industry. The rich seafood resources of the state can be explored in a planned way to generate revenue for the state as well as create employment opportunities for the youths. Odisha is stated to have a fishery potential of 5,15,000 MT which can enable the establishment of many seafood units with the government working as a facilitator. Fortunately, recently many investors have expressed their interest to leverage on the state’s resources, and many seafood parks are slated to be set up aided and assisted by government agencies like IDCO. The government has also developed a Special Purpose Vehicle to promote seafood parks and have allocated Rs 15 crore for the purpose.
The central government has also launched its mega food park scheme to provide requisite incentives to food processing industries and the state government must align its policies with the former to create a sustainable ecosystem for the establishment of food parks, especially seafood parks. With a natural advantage Odisha is having in this sector,-production and export will grow and consequently create employment opportunities for the youths of the state.