Essex Marine is a seafood export company based in India, operating with an EU-approved facility and a focus on both fish and shrimp processing. In conversation with Small Cap Spotlight, founder Debasish Sen outlines the company’s approach to quality control, certifications, and value-added products. With established global exports and a ready-to-cook segment underway, the company is aiming for steady, quality-led growth.
Mubina Kapasi: Hello and welcome to SmallCap Spotlight. Today we’ll be talking to the management of Essex Marine, a seafood company that exports from India to the world. I have with me the promoter and managing director Mr. Debashish Sen to talk about that and the vision that he has for the company. Hello Mr. Sen, thank you so much for joining us on SmallCap Spotlight. I think to begin with let’s have an introduction about your company. I think you’re incorporated in 2009 and now you’ve become a significant player in India’s seafood export industry. What’s the journey like?
Debashish Sen: Our company, we started this company around 2009, but before that we were into seafood exports but with another proprietary firm of mine around year 95-96. And we started this private limited company in year 2009 and we were basically doing seafood exports and having the job work done with some other processors who used to do our job work and then we would export. But we thought that by doing job work with some other company we are not able to get the quality, the preferred quality that we want to do for the export.
So around 2012-13 we started our own processing unit in West Bengal and we’re doing exports of seafood until now we are doing that in our own processing factory.
Mubina Kapasi: So what motivated you to enter the seafood industry in India? Could you share a bit about your own personal journey?
Debashish Sen: First of all, from the very beginning I was into the thought of that we have a huge coastline here and a lot of varieties of fishes and shrimps year by year we are getting and these are all demandable products everywhere because the variety of fishes we have here doesn’t have anywhere in the world. So it is a great opportunity for our company or in fact it is a great opportunity for India also to export this type of varieties of fishes to the other part of the world. That’s why in that way we started this seafood exports, fish exports.
Mubina Kapasi: Understood. Okay, so during the course of your entrepreneurial journey were there any challenges that you faced in building Essex Marine and how did you overcome them?
Debashish Sen: Challenges is that there are sometimes, this is a seasonal business. First of all, these marine fishes, they are seasonal and sometimes there are less catch also because of weather fluctuations and this is one of the big challenges that there is a seasonality in the business. Secondly, if there is anything happening in the world, the freight, the cargo freight goes up.
This is the second one and the currency fluctuations and the needs of different certifications from the various countries. These are the few challenges we face every time that sometimes this country needs this type of certification, somewhere that country asks for a different certification. You will be knowing that once one certification is needed only for France that is a SMETA.
This is called SMETA which is a certification that is, I would say, about the workers, how we treat workers, how we salary them, how do we keep them, how do we give them food and rest, everything. This is a social audit they are doing every year.
Mubina Kapasi: Oh absolutely and I mean, you know, when you are catering to the food markets and that too globally you have to play by their rules which are obviously very stringent. We’ll talk about that too but I’d like to first understand that what gives your product portfolio a competitive advantage? What gives your products that competitive edge?
Debashish Sen: We have various seafoods, that is, one is fish, marine fish. There are varieties of fishes available in this coastline that is, I could say the names of some of them. One is pomfret, there are three types of pomfrets, silver, Chinese and black and some ribbon fishes there, cuttlefish, eel, then croaker, sole fish.
These are the fishes that we export and another part is the shrimps. Shrimp also, there are two types of shrimps. One is cultured shrimp that is being aquacultured in this state and in India also and another type of shrimp that is wild caught that are called sea shrimps.
There are also many varieties up there. So all sort of varieties we export based on the demand of the buyers.
Mubina Kapasi: All right, okay. Coming back to that point which you mentioned with respect to certifications, it’s onerous and naturally so because it is the food business. There are several international standards one must adhere to, you mentioned a couple of those certifications.
How do you maintain these certifications and also do you think that somewhere this also gives you a competitive edge because there are perhaps many other companies out there who may not be eligible to export to the countries that you do?
Debashish Sen: Correct, correct. You have said the right thing because we are a EU-approved factory, our factory is European Union approved. So therefore we have to maintain the standards.
There is a set standard which are monitored every time there are unannounced audit going on in our factory. We have certifications of BRC, FSSC, HACCP, SMETA as I already told you. Then there are GMP, SSOP.
There are various certifications and every certification gives you an edge to your competitor because various countries, when you are certified in every sort of certifications, the buyers of countries European and USA, they will give you preferred rates also.
Mubina Kapasi: All right. Mr. Sen, tell us a bit about your sourcing strategy. You mentioned that there is a seasonality factor that’s associated with this industry.
So how do you ensure that there is a consistent source of supply so that your business is not interrupted?
Debashish Sen: We are one of the factories. We have both fish and shrimp processing unit. Actually, we have two units combined into one.
One is for the fish and one is for the shrimp. So the fish season, there is no catch season, band season there for the ecological balance. That is from 15th of April to 15th of June.
It starts from 15th of June and it goes up to 15th of April for the next year. And the shrimp starts from 15th of April and it ends around November, December. So basically, because we are having two sets of productions in our factory, so we don’t really feel that dull season.
We always have either fish or shrimp or both fish are going together. Because we are one of the factories, we have both the processing capacity.
Mubina Kapasi: Okay. Could you explain what would be the main cost components for your business and how do you manage any fluctuations in that and the impact on your margins?
Debashish Sen: The raw material price is the main cost that is around 60-65%. It goes around there. Then there is freight, there is electricity, and there is labor.
These are the costs. So electricity, I would say that we manage it and we are planning for a solar plant also. We have one coal store in Kolkata in the city also.
So we have already installed solar power plant there and we are planning to install here also by next year. And by the raw material, we have to manage because in the high-landing season, we purchase more. That’s why we have a big capacity.
So we purchase more to keep the balance in the raw material prices.
Mubina Kapasi: All right. Now, you’re a major exporter and especially in the last couple of months, we’ve seen that trade rules, tariffs, etc. have been seeing a lot of changes.
So how do you navigate all these changing international policies and regulations?
Debashish Sen: Well, I can come to that point because we are having fish and shrimp. Fish is an item that goes mainly to China, the marine fish. So we are sending fish to China and the shrimp part, if we go with the quality.
Now see, just yesterday, one FTA was done with UK. So we are going to have zero import duty on our product for exporting to UK. So in that way, the exports to UK and Europe will go up.
Maybe Trump is going on with the import duty, but we’ll come to that later because that will not affect. Seafood is that item, which is preferred by everyone. It is preferable all over the world.
Mubina Kapasi: Let’s talk about your locational advantage. You’re based out of Kolkata and you’re basically sourced from the eastern seaboard. You also, like you mentioned, export to China.
So could you tell us a bit about how you have the geographical advantage and how you’re leveraging it?
Debashish Sen: Geographical advantages, we have our processing plant in West Bengal, but in the border area with Orissa. And there is a place called Digha in West Bengal, which is the main landing center for the sea materials, sea fishes and sea shrimps. And this area also, the aquaculture is the maximum in West Bengal.
The aquaculture product is highest in West Bengal in this area. So for that reason, we are getting the fresh quality of fishes from the sea and the aquaculture product. And because we are having a factory in the border with Orissa, we are getting materials from Orissa also.
And so to say from Andhra also, Andhra Pradesh also. So that is the main location advantage we are having here. Fresh material, we are getting much more fresh material than many other exporters.
Mubina Kapasi: You’ve answered my next question on quality control as well. So I’m going to jump to my next question on the ready to cook section. It’s a new segment that you’re entering into.
Could you share the rationale with us and how will this essentially change your business model?
Debashish Sen: Now, it is a known fact that coming days, the value addition material will go up. If you want to have more material getting exported, you have to have value addition. Value addition is the main key part because nowadays people don’t cook.
So they want ready to fry, ready to cook material. They do not want to work also because they have no time. All of the members of the family are working.
So value addition means you are giving some extra work. You are giving the material with some extra facility that is going to ease the customer. And for that, we are keeping that blanching because blanching means we are doing the half cooking for the exporter, for the importers.
So that will give. And secondly, when there is some excess materials, we can do many, several, many products by blanching also.
Mubina Kapasi: Any plans to expand to new geographical markets?
Debashish Sen: We don’t have any plan right now because we are in the border between Odisha and Bengal. We are getting materials from Odisha and Andhra also. So right now we don’t have any plan for expansion of our processing unit into other geographical locations.
Mubina Kapasi: Okay. And what about exports? Any plans to tap into any other international markets?
Debashish Sen: We are already exporting to most of the countries. We are doing exports. Last year, we exported to Israel also.
But due to that freight challenge, we stopped that. We are exporting all over the world. Okay.
Mubina Kapasi: Now, when it comes to food, quality standards obviously have to be met. So how do you plan to scale operations while maintaining quality standards?
Debashish Sen: You cannot scale without maintaining the quality because it’s a quality business. If you are steady with the quality, if you have achieved recognition from the buyers, if the buyers are having faith in you, in your quality, then you can expand. Then you can do for the volumes.
Otherwise, first you have to keep the quality of the materials. You have to focus mainly on the quality because quality will give you the prices, desired prices, and you can demand also prices from the buyers if you are having good quality. And as we are doing job works of different companies also, so we have a brand image already established in outside India also.
Mubina Kapasi: What is Essex Marines’ vision in terms of revenue, profit milestones in the next 5 to 10 years?
Debashish Sen: We are doing exports almost everywhere in the world. And keeping the quality, we can grow. And I cannot exactly tell you how much we can grow.
But first of all, we have to keep the quality. Quality is the main issue. If we maintain the quality, we will grow.
Otherwise, we will do slow and steady increase in our quantity.
Mubina Kapasi: Okay, Mr. Sen, thank you so much for joining us today on SmallCap Spotlight. And thank you viewers for tuning in. I hope you have enjoyed this interview.
Please don’t forget that this is not a stock tip or recommendation. It’s merely a platform to communicate a company’s story. Consult your financial advisor before making any financial decisions or investment decisions.
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