On April 13, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Shri Piyush Goyal virtually inaugurated e-SANTA, an electronic marketplace providing a platform to connect aqua farmers and buyers. e-SANTA is a web portal, Electronic Solution for Augmenting NaCSA farmers’ Trade-in Aquaculture.

e-SANTA is inaugurated to enable the farmers to get a better price and the exporters to directly purchase quality products from the farmers. This will enhance traceability, a key factor in international trade.

At the event, Shri Goyal said that e-SANTA will raise income, lifestyle, self-reliance, quality levels, traceability, and provide new options for our aqua farmers. He said that the platform will change the traditional way of carrying out business from a word of mouth basis to become more formalized & legally binding. He said that e-SANTA will raise the lives & income of farmers by:

• Reducing Risk
• Awareness of Products & Markets
• Increase in Income
• Shielding Against Wrong Practice
• Ease of Processes

e-SANTA will eliminate the role of middlemen and this will revolutionize traditional aquafarming by providing cashless, contactless, and paperless electronic trade platforms between farmers and exporters. e-SANTA platform is available in many languages, which will help the local population.

Union Minister said this will help India become self-reliant. He said that the initiative of NaCSA has the potential to change the Naksha (Map) of marketing of aqua products in India.