Nirmala Sitaraman, in the Union Budget yesterday, gave sops to the aquaculture industry. The FM has announced that the Govt will be giving financial support for setting up a network of Nucleus Breeding Centres for Shrimp Broodstocks. The FM also said that through NABARD, shrimp farmers, processors and exporters will get finance.

With frozen shrimp accounting for two-thirds of total seafood exports in FY24. The FM, to give it further boost reduced the basic customs duty on certain broodstock, polychaete worms, shrimp and fish feed to 5%. The FM also exempted customs duty on various inputs for manufacture of shrimp and fish feed.

This has given a great impetus to all the listed aquaculture companies with Avanti Feeds hit a new high at Rs.724.90, up 12.5%; Waterbase hit the 20% UC briefly at Rs.102.18. Other stocks like Apex Foods, Mukka Proteins, Kings Infra, Godrej Agrovet and Sharat Inds are up strongly in the green.