Union commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday (13 April) virtually inaugurated Electronic Solution for Augmenting NaCSA farmers' Trade in Aquaculture (e-SANTA), an electronic marketplace providing a platform to connect aqua farmers and the buyers.

It will enable the farmers to get a better price and the exporters to directly purchase quality products from the farmers enhancing traceability, a key factor in international trade.

Speaking on the occasion, minister Goyal said that e-SANTA will raise income, lifestyle, self-reliance, quality levels, traceability, and provide new options for our aqua farmers.

The minister said that e-SANTA is a digital bridge to end the market divide and will act as an alternative marketing tool between farmers and buyers by eliminating middlemen.

It will revolutionize traditional aquafarming by providing cashless, contactless and paperless electronic trade platforms between farmers and exporters, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said in a statement.

“e-SANTA can become a tool to advertise collectively the kind of products the buyers, fishermen and fish producing organisations are harvesting, so people in India and internationally can know what is available and in the future, it can become an auction platform”, he added.

e-SANTA is a completely paperless and end-to-end electronic trade platform between farmers and exporters. The farmers have the freedom to list their produce and quote their price while the exporters have the freedom to list their requirements and also to choose the products based on their requirements such as desired size, location, harvest dates etc.