When two entrepreneur friends who are Chartered Accountants join hands with a common vision and a mission, then successful outcomes are bound to happen. When looking for new opportunities, the duo, who were friends for 20 + years, decided to enter into export of seafood through their company Megaa Moda Pvt. Ltd. Thanks to Shankar’s seafood export background and Yogesh’s leather goods export background, they split their roles and banked on each other’s expertise while allowing each other to make decisions in the best interest of the business. In no time, they were able to scale the company from a modest Rs.6 crore in FY 2011-2012 to Rs.170 crore in FY 2018-2019.

Today, Megaa is a leading seafood exporter from India (100 percent export of frozen seafood) under the brand name MEGAA and MEGAA Delight, committed to provide excellent quality and service set at the highest parameters of hygiene and safety. It exports a range of products, including Vannemei, Black Tiger Prawn, Fresh Water Scampi, Sea Water Pink, Deep Sea Shrimps, Sea Water Cat Tiger, and many more. It exports to countries such as Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Korea, EU, U.S., Germany, France, and several more, and has already made in-roads in newer and unchartered countries like Reunion, Ukraine, Mauritius, and others.

Currently undertaking contract farming, Megaa has engaged its employees on the farms to help the farmers technically as well as to monitor them and have better control to procure high quality and fresh farm

materials. To maintain freshness, the company freezes its products within maximum 12 hours of harvesting. It maintains minimum temperature of -18 to -20 degree Celsius in cold store to preserve their products. The company adheres to complete cold chain all the way from procuring raw materials from refrigerated vans, to processing in desired temperatures, storing products in cold stores (three stores with total capacity of 1500 MT), and making final shipment in refrigerated trucks to boost shelf life. It has high sensitivity metal detectors, mechanized packing machines, and in-house logistic support, and maintains stringent agreements with its transporters to maintain required temperature while transporting consignment to dock. Its loading docks are fully sealed to avoid any contamination, which is why the company received AEO-Tier-II Certification from Indian Customs in a single audit.

The company’s commitment to hygiene and quality products and its check & controls being A-grade, helped Megaa obtain all the stringent certifications and international compliances

Banking on Strengths

The company’s commitment to hygiene and quality products and its check & controls being A-grade, helped Megaa obtain all the stringent certifications and international compliances like USFDA, BRC, BAP, HACCP, SEDEX and AEO Tier-II, at one go in one audit. The company is recognized as Two Star Export House under Ministry of Commerce and Industry, GoI, is an ISO 9001:2015 certified company, and is registered with The Marine Products Export Development Authority, Export Inspection Agency and FSSAI.

Having adopted HACCP, Megaa adheres to standard operating procedure manual and sanitary SOP, and offers high quality tested products from its in-house laboratory equipped with world-class equipment. Today, the facility is spread across 2.5 acres, loaded with ultra-modern infrastructure facility, employs over 600 workers, and has mechanized peeling machines and grading machines in addition to skilled manual graders and peelers, apart from various modern machines. It has adopted mechanized palleting and stacking facility, all contributing to a combined total processing capacity of 4x40’ containers per day.

Currently serving wholesalers and large international retail stores, Megaa has blue prints ready to establish itself in the domestic market in 12-18 months by offering ready-to-cook and cooked seafood products. “We are on the path to do backward integration into farm level sponsorship and fish feed farming,” concludes the duo.