Innovative Products like Fish Popcorn, Imitation Crab Stick and fish Pakoda Among winners at IISS Show

VISAKHAPATNAM:
Innovative seafood products like fish popcorn, frozen masala mackerel, imitation crab stick, fish pakoda and Crab Claw Amritsari fetched top prizes for their manufacturers while a company from Maharashtra walked away with a string of honours at the products and stall awards of the three-day 20th edition of India International Seafood Show (IISS), which concluded here.
Maharashtra-based Gadra Marine Exports Pvt Ltd got six awards, including both Best Retail Product (frozen masala mackerel) and Runner up for Best Retail product (imitation crab stick). The four other awards for the company were in the categories of Best Retail Packaging (Crab Claw Amritsari), Best Innovative Product (fish popcorn), Best Convenience Product (frozen masala mackerel) and also the runner up for the Best Convenience Product (frozen masala prawn).
Andhra Pradesh Food Processing Society was given the award for the Best Indian Stall while the second best award in the category went to Nilkamal Limited.
In the category of Best Stall (Overseas), Ishida India Pvt Ltd, based in Japan, got the first prize while Glory CO Ltd, a Vietnamese company, was adjudged the runner up.
The award for the Best Stall in the category of Registered Exporters was bagged by Avanti Frozen Foods while Devi Fisheries Ltd got the award for the Second Best Stall.
West Coast Frozen Foods Pvt Ltd was adjudged the runner up for both Best Retail Packaging (Cambay Tiger Fish Pakoda) and Best Innovative Product (Cambay Tiger Fish Pakoda).
In all, there were 14 prizes that were up for grabs at the IISS 2016, an international showpiece event in seafood sector organised by the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA). Of these prizes, eight were in the category of product awards and six for stalls.
The awards were presented by Dr. A Jayathilak, Chairman, MPEDA, in the presence of V. Padmanabham, President, Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI).
These were decided by an independent committee for each category.
A distinctive feature of the 20th edition of IISS was that the Union Commerce and Industry Ministry participated in the MPEDA’s signature event with all its Boards and institutions setting up exhibition stalls for the first time.
The Spices Board, Tea Board of India, Coffee Board, Rubber Board and Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), besides the MPEDA and its three allied institutions — NaCSA (National Centre for Sustainable Aquaculture), NETFISH (Network for Fish Quality Management & Sustainable Fishing), and RGCA (Rajiv Gandhi Centre fort Aquaculture), had set up their stalls under a single pavilion.
Overall, there were 300 stalls, including 71 from abroad, spread over an area of 7000 square metre. The total number of exhibitors was 144 drawn from 117 Indian and 27 foreign companies. Of the exhibitors, 42 were machinery manufacturers and 102 from the product exhibition segment. Th
e total number of delegates was more than 1200 while there were 67 business visitors from abroad.
The event received a tremendous response from international participants from the US, Japan, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Spain, the UK, Vietnam, China, Taiwan and Thailand, besides Indian companies. More than one-third of the stall area was booked by foreign companies.