ANWAR KHAN

KARACHI: Pakistan’s seafood export fell to $438.021 million during the just ended fiscal year 2018-19 because of hasty enforcement of the federal government’s deep sea policy that kept fishing suspended for about three months, industry said on Monday.

The country fell short by $12.286 million or 3 percent to keep up with the seafood export of $451.021 million fiscal year 2017-18, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics said. “We could have grown export by 30 percent, at least, but the clampdown on the hunting boats after the sudden implementation of fisheries policy without consultation with stakeholders,” Syed Akhlaq Hussain Abidi, Chairman Pakistan Fisheries Exporters Association, told Business Recorder.

He widely held the deep sea fishing policy that the PTI government without consulting with the stakeholders concerned implemented that resulted in a break of about three months of fishing, which brought down the country’s seafood export to $438.021 million in fiscal year 2018-19. He said that the country was progressing with seafood export growth by about 30 percent annually, which the industry missed unfortunately this time.

In term of volume, Pakistan’s seafood export declined to 195,523 metric tons in July-June 2018-19 from 196,927 metric tons in July-June 2017-18, showing a fall of one percent or 1404 metric tons. In June 2019, Pakistan exported $32.168 million of seafood, which is higher by 19 percent or $5.125 million from $27.043 million in June 2018. Seafood export quantity also grew by 19 percent or 2392 metric tons to 15,213 metric tons in June 2019 from 12,821 metric tons in June 2018.

Abidi said that the clampdown on boats, which just had entered into the new fishing season, not only reduced the catch volume but also resulted in low processing of the seafood and export. The chaos that took several months to end, primarily, struck the fisheries export, he said, adding that “appeal and demand of Pakistan seafood is growing in the world but we have a very little catch to feed the world consumers”. He said that the government should focus on aquaculture development to augment the country’s seafood export phenomenally.

“We greatly depend on the sea crop to meet the world demand for seafood, which is very short,” he said that other countries including India have shifted their burden to aquaculture from marine fisheries to increase their global share. “We could then beat textile sector export alone if aquaculture is promoted,” he said, adding that the dollar value increase against the rupee may help the exporters and fishermen but not the seafood processing industry. The government is not interested in $400 million export sector, he was of the view, which is the reason the seafood industry’s growth shows little progress than its regression.