A homegrown company, Abba Kaba Overseas Private Limited, was established by a group of like-minded academicians. The company was formed on 7th February 2013 to process and export marine products to various countries. Under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the company has been granted a license to ship by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT). Also, the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA), a promotional body for Indian marine products, has recognized us and given its approval.
A founding member of the company, Dr Kamalesh Mishra, is a graduate in Commerce from Utkal University with a Master’s in Business Administration from SYMBIOSIS Institute of Business Management under Pune University. In addition to his degree in marketing management, he holds an LLB and a Doctorate in Management from Ravenshaw University. In addition to his industry experience, he has taught MBA students for 14 years. He is ably assisted by Dr Mukti Kumar Nanda. After completing graduation in Commerce, Dr Nanda completed the CFA program. Presently, he is a qualified Chartered Financial Analyst from ICFAI. He is also an MBA with a Finance specialization and a PhD in management. He started as an academician before joining the company as a director.
The company has a robust presence in the sunrise sector of marine products. In recent years, the demand for seafood has been increasing, mainly due to the growing population, increased per capita income, a depletion of the marine catch, and a greater awareness of the benefits of eating nutritious food. In the past decade, shrimp production has grown exponentially.
India is the world’s largest shrimp supplier, though Asia is the primary region. India exported a total of 12,89,651 MT of seafood in FY 2019-20, valued at US$ 6.68 billion. Shrimp continued to lead the seafood export basket. During FY 2019-20, shrimp exports reached 6,52,253 MT, valued at US$ 4.8 billion. In addition to its long coastlines and vast salt-encrusted land banks. Consumer countries and regions such as the US, EU, China and other Asian countries increasingly demand value-added products.
As one of the fastest-moving commodities globally, marine products have been acclaimed for their high health attributes. The most crucial export was frozen shrimps. Regarding USD inflow into India, farmed shrimp contributes approximately 75 per cent of the total shrimp export. Shrimp culture has tremendous growth potential in the coming years because of the rapid expansion in the production front through shrimp farming and infrastructure development by governments in marine products development.
As a result of implementing the latest technologies and tapping the unexploited and underexploited fishery resources, India is preparing to produce and supply value-added products in convenience packs. The thrust is on value addition. Over the next few years, Indian seafood processing units will be encouraged to diversify their current value addition and export activities by setting up new units, expanding their capacity, and establishing new value addition units. Abba Kaba specializes in value-added products that improve margins and penetrate more markets. At present, Abba Kaba sells two major categories of products, viz. A robust purchase network is in place across all of Odisha’s coast, from Balasore to Kasafalla, Chudamani to Paradip, Ersama to Konark, Bramhagiri to Puri and Balugaon.
There are well-trained supervisors and infrastructure facilities such as ice plants and pre-processing centres, sea plants, crates, etc. As of recently, the state of Andhra Pradesh is growing shrimp on a large scale, which has become a significant source of raw materials for the state of Odisha. To maintain the freshness and quality of the product, raw materials are transported in their insulated vehicles from the above-mentioned purchase centres directly to the factory. The finished product is transported in a reefer container to Visakhapatnam Port, depending on the vessel schedule. In this industry, raw material procurement and handling and logistics are vital factors, and Abba Kaba is fully equipped to take advantage of its experience.
To increase turnover and long-term funds, working capital is needed to build a seafood processing plant. The project is under construction in Mulijhar, Tangi, in Khurda district on a freehold basis in 3.50 acres of land. Approximately 3000 tonnes of finished products will be produced annually by the proposed processing unit, which will employ around 200 workers. Additionally, there will be a flake ice machine and grading machines and an IQF, four plate freezers, and three cold rooms, each with a capacity of 150 MT. To establish the seafood processing plant, we are looking for a term loan of Rs 6 crore.
