Indian seafood exporters say shrimp investigations a 'sinister' campaign to derail industry's rapid growth

An executive with India's largest seafood export and processing association on Friday defended his members' shrimp supply chain, and criticized recent investigations into the industry as part of an NGO-backed effort to curb the industry's growth.

Elias Sait, secretary general of the Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI), a group representing 400 Indian seafood companies, said reports by the news agency the Associated Press and US the nonprofit group Corporate Accountability Lab (CAL) were "explicitly aimed at manipulating the perceptions of the American consumer," adding in an email interview with IntraFish that the coordination of investigations into the sector was a "sinister effort" to attack what he sees as the "growing image and status of Indian shrimp in the US market."