Marine Seafood Processing and Value-Added Products Facility

Project Overview

An Indian seafood engineering major and a European seafood processing technology partner engaged IMARC Engineering to establish a greenfield marine seafood processing and value-added products manufacturing facility at Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh. The project was structured against the Government of India's Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) launched on 10 September 2020 with a total outlay of INR 20,750 Crore administered by the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying (the dedicated Ministry created in 2019) targeting the holistic and sustainable development of India's fisheries and aquaculture sector across the full value chain from seed and feed through harbour infrastructure and value-added marketing. PMMSY completed six years of implementation on 10 September 2026, with the Union Budget 2026-27 allocating a record INR 2,500 Crore for the scheme reaffirming the Government's commitment to the Blue Economy.

The scheme's structural outcomes are validated by the September 2026 reporting: Indian fish production rose from 141.64 lakh tonnes in 2019-20 to a record 197.75 lakh tonnes in 2024-25, while Indian fisheries exports grew from INR 46,663 Crore in 2019-20 to INR 73,890 Crore in 2025-26 reflecting the sector's strengthening position in the global seafood value chain. The Department of Fisheries had approved fisheries and aquaculture projects worth INR 21,394.88 Crore (with a Central share of INR 9,510.89 Crore) as of 11 August 2026 across the 2020-21 to 2025-26 window, directly supporting approximately 58 lakh people in direct and indirect employment and sustaining the ~3 crore livelihoods anchored on the fisheries sector.

Complementary framework support comes from the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Kisan Samridhi Sah-Yojana (PM-MKSSY) a Central Sector sub-scheme operating from 2023-24 to 2026-27 with an estimated outlay of INR 6,000 Crore focused on sector formalisation, aquaculture incentivisation, and the National Fisheries Digital Platform (NFDP) which had crossed 37.23 lakh registrations by 8 September 2026 enabling access to credit, insurance, and traceability.

The project involved establishing 24,000 tonnes per annum of marine seafood processing and value-added products manufacturing capacity across three product families 15,000 tonnes of frozen shrimp (comprising both vannamei and black tiger shrimp varieties sourced from the surrounding Andhra Pradesh coastal aquaculture ecosystem), 6,000 tonnes of frozen fish fillets (across sea bream, tilapia, pangasius, and other commercially traded species), and 3,000 tonnes of value-added products (comprising breaded, battered, marinated, and ready-to-cook seafood variants for the premium domestic and export market segments). Site infrastructure was designed for Phase 2 expansion adding a ready-to-eat seafood retail pack product line for premium domestic and export markets.

Client's Challenges

The client faced several specific challenges in establishing greenfield marine seafood processing in India:

• Aquaculture farmer supply chain integration: Structuring a resilient shrimp and fish supply chain across the surrounding Andhra Pradesh coastal aquaculture ecosystem with associated coordination across Fish Farmers Producer Organisations (FFPOs) under the PMMSY framework, direct aquaculture farmer sourcing, Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) compliance verification across the supply base, and matched antibiotic residue and heavy metal testing infrastructure required for US FDA SIMP and EU DG SANTE qualified supply.
• Precision blast freezing and cold chain engineering: Engineering the precision blast freezing infrastructure delivering the minus-40-degree-Celsius core-temperature achievement within the sub-two-hour window required for Individual Quick Frozen (IQF) seafood product specifications, alongside the matched minus-25-degree-Celsius cold storage, dispatch bay, and reefer-container-interface infrastructure engineered for the uninterrupted cold chain integrity across the export logistics window.
• Multi-market certification pathway: Achieving Export Inspection Council (EIC) certification under the Export (Quality Control and Inspection) Act 1963, Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) registration, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) licensing, HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) compliance, US FDA Seafood HACCP and Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP) qualification, EU Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE) establishment approval, Japan Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare qualification, and China General Administration of Customs (GACC) registration the required certifications for the four dominant global seafood export markets.
• Value-added product process engineering: Engineering the breading, battering, marinating, and ready-to-cook product lines across the specialty seafood value-added portfolio with associated specialty ingredient supply, batter formulation, and matched QA infrastructure required for the premium domestic HORECA and export retail market specifications.
• Environmental compliance and effluent management: Meeting Andhra Pradesh State Pollution Control Board effluent enforcement particularly the organic-rich effluent management applicable to seafood processing operations requiring engineered anaerobic and aerobic biological treatment infrastructure alongside odour control systems, with associated Central Pollution Control Board Consolidated Consent and Authorisation compliance.
• Workforce build-up: Recruiting 320 personnel including seafood processing engineers, quality technicians (including certified HACCP coordinators), skilled processing operators, and cold chain specialists in the Kakinada regional labour market that hosts the broader East Godavari district coastal fisheries ecosystem.

What We Did

• Pre-Investment and Strategic Advisory

Our feasibility study evaluated four candidate Indian locations Kakinada (Andhra Pradesh), Nellore (Andhra Pradesh), Veraval (Gujarat), and Ratnagiri (Maharashtra) with Kakinada selected on the strength of Andhra Pradesh's dominant position as India's leading seafood exporting state (contributing approximately 40 percent of national marine product exports), the East Godavari coastal district's established shrimp aquaculture ecosystem providing structural feedstock supply, proximity to Kakinada Deep Water Port enabling direct container-reefer export logistics, established rail and road connectivity to the surrounding Andhra Pradesh and adjacent Odisha and Telangana aquaculture belts, the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Policy incentive framework alongside the state's marine fisheries development support under PMMSY, and access to engineering talent from JNTU Kakinada and the surrounding technical education base. CapEx planning of INR 254 Crore covered the raw material receiving and inspection area, the processing and blast freezing line, the cold storage and dispatch area, the value-added products line, the quality laboratory, the effluent treatment plant, and central utilities. Financial modelling demonstrated post-tax IRR of 26.2 percent at full ramp with a 4.6-year payback.

• Engineering and Design Services

IMARC designed a 16,000 sq.m built-up facility on a 10-acre plot comprising the raw material receiving and chilled holding area with dedicated inspection stations for Best Aquaculture Practices verification, antibiotic residue testing, and heavy metal screening at the inbound stage, the shrimp processing area covering de-heading, peeling, deveining, and grading operations across the vannamei and black tiger varieties, the fish filleting and portioning area for the sea bream, tilapia, pangasius, and other species product lines, the Individual Quick Frozen (IQF) blast freezing line delivering minus-40-degree-Celsius core temperature within the sub-two-hour specification window, the value-added products line covering breading, battering, marinating, and ready-to-cook preparation stations, the minus-25-degree-Celsius cold storage with dispatch bay engineered for reefer container interface, the quality laboratory covering microbiological testing, antibiotic residue testing, heavy metal testing, and full HACCP specification verification infrastructure, the raw material and finished goods packaging and warehouse area, the effluent treatment plant with anaerobic and aerobic biological treatment supported by odour control systems, and central utilities.

Process utility design covered 2.8 MW grid demand supplemented by a 1 MW captive rooftop solar array, dedicated ammonia-based industrial refrigeration infrastructure sized for the IQF blast freezing and cold storage duty, dedicated potable water supply with chlorination infrastructure meeting FSSAI specifications, integrated MES for lot-level and farmer-level traceability aligned with HACCP, US FDA SIMP, EU DG SANTE, and NFDP documentation requirements, and dedicated cold chain monitoring and digital logging infrastructure.

• Procurement and Supply Chain Support

We executed a multi-geography procurement programme across 36 critical vendors. Shrimp processing equipment including peeling, deveining, and grading infrastructure was sourced from established European and Southeast Asian seafood processing equipment specialists with documented Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia deployment references. Individual Quick Frozen blast freezing infrastructure was sourced from established European industrial refrigeration specialists with proven ammonia-based IQF deployment references.

Fish filleting and portioning equipment was sourced from European and Southeast Asian specialists. Value-added products line equipment was sourced from European and US food processing equipment specialists. Quality laboratory equipment covering microbiological testing, antibiotic residue testing, and heavy metal testing was sourced from established European and US analytical equipment specialists. Effluent treatment plant infrastructure was sourced from Indian water technology specialists with seafood industry track record.

Seafood feedstock sourcing was structured through structured long-term arrangements with aquaculture Fish Farmers Producer Organisations under the PMMSY framework alongside direct aquaculture farmer sourcing, building to committed feedstock supply covering the full 24,000 TPA nameplate across the surrounding Andhra Pradesh coastal aquaculture ecosystem by Year-2 operations. Documented Domestic Content reached 88 percent in Year-1 operations and 94 percent in Year-2 reflecting the near-complete domestic sourcing of seafood feedstock and process consumables alongside select imports of specialty value-added product ingredients.

• Project Execution and Site Management

Our turnkey project management delivered 18 months from groundbreaking to first commercial seafood despatch, coordinating civil construction, mechanical and electrical erection, industrial refrigeration installation, HACCP-compliant hygienic process area fit-out, equipment integration, and phased commissioning across the receiving, processing, blast freezing, cold storage, and value-added products zones.

Phased commissioning ran the raw material receiving and processing area first, followed by the IQF blast freezing line (as the critical-path bottleneck for first product qualification), then the cold storage and dispatch area with the first commercial frozen shrimp batch completed in month 15 and first frozen fish fillet batch in month 16, and finally the value-added products line and quality laboratory with progressive HACCP, EIC, MPEDA, US FDA SIMP, and EU DG SANTE certification campaigns.

Multi-vendor coordination across European, Southeast Asian, US, and Indian contractors required a 12-strong owner's engineering team supplemented by 5 European resident engineers from the seafood processing technology partner during the IQF blast freezing commissioning and initial product qualification phases.

• Compliance, Quality and Sustainability

IMARC Engineering led certification readiness for Export Inspection Council (EIC) certification under the Export (Quality Control and Inspection) Act, 1963. This included documented facility inspection and compliance verification completed in Year 1 of operations. The scope also covered Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) registration and Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) licensing.

IMARC Engineering verified compliance with BIS IS 2237 for frozen prawns and applicable species-specific BIS standards for frozen fish products. The team also addressed applicable FSSAI food safety and microbiological requirements for fish and fishery products. HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) principles were implemented across processing operations.

For export markets, the readiness scope covered US FDA Seafood HACCP and Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP) requirements. It also included EU Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE) establishment approval requirements, Japan Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare import requirements, and China General Administration of Customs (GACC) registration. Applicable Codex Alimentarius standards for seafood products were also considered.

IMARC Engineering supported Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) alignment across the aquaculture feedstock supply base. The management system certification scope included ISO 9001:2015 for quality management, ISO 14001:2015 for environmental management, ISO 22000:2018 for food safety management, ISO 45001:2018 for occupational health and safety, and ISO 50001:2018 for energy management.

Environmental compliance covered Andhra Pradesh State Pollution Control Board Consent to Establish and Operate, Hazardous Waste Authorisation for effluent treatment plant sludge, and Extended Producer Responsibility commitments for end-of-life packaging material recovery under the Plastic Waste Management Rules 2022 framework. The facility achieved IGBC Gold certification through 1 MW captive rooftop solar covering approximately 24 percent of facility daytime energy demand, heat recovery from industrial refrigeration operations, variable-frequency drives across HVAC and process pump systems, and 20 percent lower facility energy intensity versus the Southeast Asian seafood processing industry benchmark.

Final Results

Operational Performance

The facility achieved mechanical completion in 18 months with first commercial seafood despatch in month 19. Full 24,000 tonnes per annum nameplate capacity was reached at 76 percent utilisation (equivalent to 18,240 tonnes of processed seafood in Year-2, comprising approximately 11,400 tonnes of frozen shrimp, 4,560 tonnes of frozen fish fillets, and 2,280 tonnes of value-added seafood products) by month 15 of operations, with sustained first-pass HACCP specification compliance and quality acceptance across the three product families. EIC certification was secured in Year-1, MPEDA registration was completed, HACCP compliance was verified across the operations, US FDA SIMP and EU DG SANTE establishment approvals were secured for the US and EU export markets, Japan Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare and China GACC registrations were completed, and successful supplier qualification audits were passed with four global seafood importers, two Indian retail aggregators, and one HORECA institutional buyer across the first operational year.

Financial Outcomes

Final CapEx of INR 240 Crore delivered 5.5 percent savings against the INR 254 Crore budget through optimised civil packaging, disciplined Indian-fabrication leverage across the structural and process infrastructure scope, adjacency benefits from the Kakinada coastal fisheries ecosystem for auxiliary supplier ecosystem, coordinated multi-vendor procurement, and Andhra Pradesh Industrial Policy incentive framework benefits alongside PMMSY auxiliary infrastructure support. Year-2 revenue of INR 700 Crore was generated at an EBITDA margin of 10 percent, consistent with established Indian seafood processing sector economics where commodity seafood pricing combined with high raw material turnover supports characteristic high-asset-turnover low-margin financial profile a margin trajectory supported by India's growing fisheries exports trajectory (INR 73,890 Crore nationally in 2025-26) and the structural demand pipeline across the US, EU, Japan, and China seafood markets.

Market Access

Long-term supply commitments were signed with four global seafood importers (covering committed annual frozen shrimp and frozen fish fillet offtake across one US importer, two EU importers across the Germany and Netherlands markets, and one Japan importer serving the Japanese food service and retail channels), two Indian retail aggregators (covering committed offtake for the premium domestic frozen seafood retail channel across the Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, and Bengaluru urban belts), and one HORECA institutional buyer (covering committed value-added seafood offtake for the premium Indian hospitality and food service channel).

Export share reached 68 percent of revenue by Year-2 reflecting India's structural seafood export orientation and the facility's strategic positioning in the Kakinada Deep Water Port adjacent location for direct container-reefer export logistics. The feedstock supply base reached full nameplate feedstock coverage across the surrounding East Godavari and West Godavari district aquaculture Fish Farmers Producer Organisation network under the PMMSY framework.

Sustainability Impact

Our integrated design combining 1 MW captive rooftop solar covering approximately 24 percent of facility daytime energy demand, heat recovery from industrial refrigeration operations, variable-frequency drives across HVAC and process pump systems, and LED lighting throughout achieves 20 percent lower facility energy intensity versus the Southeast Asian seafood processing industry benchmark.

Process water reclamation is delivered through anaerobic-aerobic biological treatment with polishing. The aquaculture feedstock supply base is structured on Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) principles with structured monitoring of antibiotic use, water quality, and discharge practices directly supporting the sustainability objectives of the PMMSY framework and the responsible aquaculture positioning required for premium US and EU export market access. Industrial refrigeration operations use ammonia-based natural refrigerant systems with substantially lower global warming potential versus HFC-based alternatives. End-of-life packaging material recovery partnerships are established under the Plastic Waste Management Rules 2022 framework.

Strategic Impact

The project established a meaningful greenfield marine seafood processing and value-added products manufacturing capability under the PMMSY framework, positioning the client across the structural Indian Blue Economy expansion with India's fish production growing from 141.64 lakh tonnes (2019-20) to a record 197.75 lakh tonnes (2024-25), Indian fisheries exports growing from INR 46,663 Crore (2019-20) to INR 73,890 Crore (2025-26), the Union Budget 2026-27 record allocation of INR 2,500 Crore to PMMSY, and the complementary PM-MKSSY sub-scheme accelerating the sector formalisation and digital infrastructure build-out.

Year-2 revenue of INR 700 Crore, EIC certification and MPEDA registration, US FDA SIMP and EU DG SANTE establishment approvals, four global seafood importer supply commitments, and the strong 68 percent export share positioning led the client to approve Phase 2 expansion comprising a ready-to-eat seafood retail pack product line for premium domestic and export markets.

IMARC Engineering's end-to-end EPCM advisory, combining seafood processing and blast freezing engineering, aquaculture farmer supply chain design, multi-market certification pathway navigation across EIC, MPEDA, US FDA SIMP, EU DG SANTE, Japan MHLW, and China GACC frameworks, and disciplined multi-vendor execution, enabled the client to anchor a strategically important Indian industrial asset in the Blue Economy sector positioned at the intersection of India's largest-ever fisheries sector transformation and the growing global demand for sustainably-sourced Indian seafood.