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Enconomic Times mentions this in another context. Following are some relevant excerpts.

… the US Department of Commerce (USDC) has selected Devi Seafoods, Andhra Pradesh and Falcon Marine, Orissa, as the mandatory respondents on the basis of their export volumes.

These two companies are two of the largest exporters of warm water shrimp accounting for 22% of exports to the US market.

Union minister Jairam Ramesh during his visit stressed that Orissa broaden its horizon beyond minerals and metals. Some of his points were sensible and some others politically motivated. In another posting we give a rejoinder to his politically motivated comment on IIT in Orissa. Here we present some of his good ideas excerpted from a Statesman article.

The export of marine products should grow from its present level of Rs 370 crore to Rs 1,000 crore in five years, he said and added that an action plan to this end had been submitted to the state government. The MPEDA has given an action plan and it proposes to focus on shrimp and prawn cultivation over 20,000 hectares along Balasore and Bhadrak districts. Earlier, Mr Ramesh inaugurated the Quality Control Laboratory’ of the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) here today. This laboratory is the fourth in its kind in the country.

Organic ginger and turmeric, coffee and other items can be grown in tribal areas of Orissa and “we have a proposal pending since long with the state government for an organic export zone to be set up at Kandhamal district,” he said. Shellac cultivation was another area where Mayurbhanj district of Orissa has been identified as one of the four districts in the country for promotion of shellac cultivation he said.

He also criticizes Orissa’s focus on mines and metal processing industries. Orissa has the mines. What should it do? Hide it? It can’t. The Hoda committee recommends that if states delay in making a recommendation then the central government can make a unilateral recommendation. Now if that happens the minerals may go out of state and the state, which now only gets paltry royalty due to central govt. craziness of having  very low royalty rates, will lose out on development associated with value addition(like making steel). Value addition leads to infrastructure developments such as roads, railways, ports, townships, etc. So unless Orissa pays attention and follows through on its policy of only recommending mines to companies that will do value addition, and helping the companies to do the value addition, it will lose out a lot. So Orissa’s focus on the mines, steel and aluminum is not misplaced. However the point about looking at other sectors is a good one.

New Indian Express reports that the central govt. has suggested that Orissa apply for an agricultural export zone. Following are excerpts from that article.

Union Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday hinted that an Agriculture Export Zone (AEZ) in Orissa could be considered once the proposal for the same was received by the Centre.

Ramesh, who met Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at the Secretariat, told reporters that the AEZ would be established in Kandhmal for organic turmeric. …

The State Government has already identified land for establishment of the AEZ in Kandhmal where a majority of the tribals cultivate organic turmeric.

Ramesh said that he requested the Chief Minister to concentrate more on export of organic coffee from Koraput, ginger and turmeric from Kandhmal and Sal from Mayurbhanj which could generate more employment opportunities.

The Union Minister said that Orissa exported goods worth Rs 10,400 crore last year, 90 per cent of which accounted for minerals only while the handicraft and other non-traditional products had a very negligible share.

Though Orissa is known for its famous handicraft, the export of such products stood only at 3 to 4 per cent of the total export of the country. Ramesh said the State had exported marine products to the tune of Rs 350 crore last year adding that this has to cross Rs 1000 crore in the next five years.

The Centre, he said, would sanction a cold storage for perishable products in Bhubaneswar and another for marine products in Paradip soon.