Once a staunch supplier to Europe and the United States, the last two years has seen Indian trader Seven Seas switch allegiances to Japan and China.

With offices now in Tokyo and in the northern Chinese port city of Dalian, Managing Director Salim Iqbal is attending this week's Taiwan Fisheries & Seafood Show for the first time.

The company is mainly doing headless and head-on vannamei to China. It is also selling squid, cuttlefish and lower-value Indian mainstays such as ribbonfish and pomfret.

But it has not been a great year for Indian seafood traders, according to Iqbal, who says that antibiotics and heavy metal issues have all but blocked them from the European market. Indian exporters to China have also had huge issues with the shutdown of the port of Haiphong in northern Vietnam, where many were shipping seafood to enter into China.

The recent smuggling crackdown at the port -- many importers were evading duty payment -- means most Haiphong dealers are now in jail and around 1,500 containers are left stranded at the port uncleared and unclaimed, and with no hope of payment being made, said Iqbal.

The situation was what prompted Seven Seas to open in a Chinese port, and Iqbal is hoping that now exports to the country will enter without issue.

Seven Seas' shifting markets represent a bigger picture of supply chain control, with "a lot" of interest from Chinese and Japanese companies in acquiring Indian production, said Iqbal.

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Indian shrimp trader shifts to new markets