Jagadish Thota, Managing Director, Jagadeesh Marine Exports | The CEO Magazine

When Jagadish Thota joined Jagadeesh Marine Exports in the late 1990s, India’s seafood export industry looked dramatically different compared to today.

“Initially, the company was built for only Japanese exports at that time,” explains Thota, Managing Director of the company.

In its early years, Jagadeesh Marine Exports primarily processed the dominant species of black tiger shrimp. But as global seafood markets developed and farming technology advanced, so too did the company.

“Slowly changes have come for the operations in fresh water, then slowly whiteleg shrimp have been picked and the business has multiplied over the course of time,” he reveals.

Thota’s own journey into the world of business was far from planned. Instead of pursuing an MBA in the United States when he graduated with his engineering degree, he took his father’s advice to start his own business and create jobs in India.

Thota then decided to take a leap into the unknown. As he started searching for a processing plant built only for seafood, he noticed a major gap.

“Normally, there are other pieces of infrastructure, like old theaters, that used to get converted into seafood factories,” he explains.

But Thota took a different approach, creating a purpose-built, European Union-approved seafood processing facility. This early commitment to infrastructure investment set the groundwork for the company to scale when global demand increased rapidly.

Today, more than 25 years after joining the seafood exporter, he is deeply embedded in the business and, perhaps most importantly, spends a great deal of time on the factory floor with his staff.

“Our factory and people, it’s like friends and family together. We spend most of the time with them. It’s become a passion for me,” he says.

Driven to extraction

Under Thota’s leadership, Jagadeesh Marine Exports is undergoing a period of significant growth. Last year, the company recorded close to 50 percent volume growth, with current estimates showing more than 30 percent growth again this year, thanks in part to what he views as shifting dietary patterns.

“What I clearly see is protein consumption increasing, especially as people move away from red meat,” he says. “Seafood was initially a niche market, but now it has become like any commodity and affordable.”

There’s no question that seafood has become much more affordable and its supply more reliable, thanks to innovative farming technologies and economies of scale. But as prices have fallen, seafood has moved from a premium product into the mainstream, with margins narrowing.

For Thota, following a high-volume strategy alone is simply not sustainable, especially as Indian processors must compete in a global marketplace. Extracting as much value as possible from the processing journey is essential to ensuring sustainability and creating a real circular economy, as well as maximizing profit.

By investing heavily in R&D, Jagadeesh Marine Exports is able to convert all waste by-products into high-value protein products. These include protein concentrates, astaxanthin-rich oils and many other protein-based applications.

“This is sustainability and circular economy in practice,” he adds. “It’s a responsibility, but it’s also additional revenue for the company.”

Ensuring high-quality levels is, of course, an important focus, but to remain competitive, productivity gains are also needed.

“The average workforce today is not able to give the same output as some of our global competitors,” he points out.

In Thota’s view, the next logical step is to adopt automation, data-driven processing and more efficient workflows.

“There has to be a bit of automation, not killing any jobs, but building efficiencies,” he insists.

Partner farms

Instead of working with a handful of major farms, Jagadeesh Marine Exports has built long-term relationships with around 150 farms across India. Most of the raw material comes from within 30 kilometers of its factory and more than 90 percent comes from its regular farming community.

Instead of working through intermediaries, raw materials are purchased directly from farmers, increasing trust. Even more importantly, at a time when transparency in global supply chains is under increased scrutiny, strong levels of traceability can be achieved through such close relationships.

“All the raw material comes directly from the farmers to our factories,” Thota explains. “So most of the product we get is fully traceable, with firsthand information from our own core team.”

These relationships go far beyond just procurement. Jagadeesh Marine Exports provides financial support to farmers at critical moments in the production cycle, particularly during early crop stages when access to affordable capital is challenging. It’s a win–win, as farmers avoid high-interest lending and the company gains a stable supply.

While much has changed for the business over the past 25 years, most notably moving into new export markets and product types, there is still a lot left to accomplish for Thota.

Success now depends not just on processing seafood, but also on rethinking how value is created across the entire chain.

Shifting markets

India’s seafood industry has conventionally been export-oriented, but Thota believes that relying solely on overseas markets overlooks the massive opportunity offered by expanding within the country.

“India has such a large population and definitely, consumption will go up. The availability is not there today, but that will change,” he predicts.

Due to cold chain limitations, particularly outside of coastal regions, boosting the reach of seafood in the country has been difficult. But according to Thota, as logistics and distribution networks improve, the market is set to grow.

“Once the cold chain improves in India, local sales will also increase,” he says. “That’s something we are aiming for in the future.”