Strategy for fisheries sector

Punjab government has banned netting and selling of all kinds of scaled fish between June 1 and August 31 under the Fisheries Ordinance 1961 for preservation of fish varieties. Raiding teams have been constituted to curb illegal netting, as capture of even a single fish in the breeding season means loss of thousands of fish eggs, and ultimately a reduced catch.
Construction of dams and barrages across rivers has, in fact, already reduced the number of natural breeding grounds of fish, and many varieties of fish which were once common have been pushed almost to the verge of extinction.
This is a serious development indeed, as export of fish and fish products has been a major forex earner for the country. Further, fishery plays an important role in Pakistan's economy, and is considered an important source of livelihood for thousands of coastal inhabitants, particularly in Sindh and Balochistan. Apart from marine fisheries, inland fisheries (comprising rivers, lakes, ponds, dams etc) are an important source of animal protein, for those living near major rivers, lakes and dams.
It has been estimated that about 400,000 fishermen and their families are dependent on fisheries for their livelihood. However, fishery is an under-exploited resource of the country because with a 1050-km coastline and major inland water bodies, fisheries' contribution to our agricultural GDP has been as low as 1.3 percent. Moreover, domestic consumption of high protein fish at 1.9 kg per capita is among the lowest in the world.
There is very little aquaculture in the country, and the bulk of the fish catch from marine areas goes into low-value usage, with exports ranging between $150 and $200 million. Pakistan exports seafood mainly to Europe, Far East and Middle East countries and some quantity to the US also, but the value-added of total exports has been dwindling.
Obviously, the value of the present catch can be enhanced manifold through investment in improved fish harvesting and handling techniques, marketing and handling at fish harbour, as well as processing of fish and putting greater emphasis on value addition.
A few years ago, the government had approved a Fisheries Policy in an attempt to secure combined marine and inland capture fishery production with coastal and inland aquaculture, based on environmentally sound and sustainable production along with related processing and value addition. But the results so far have not been encouraging.
According to one estimate, the fisheries sector has the potential to achieve 10 percent annual growth. However, in view of poor quality control, the projected realisation of $1 billion export target by 2015 seems highly unlikely. It will be recalled that the European Union had last year de-listed all 11 of our seafood processing units in the wake of inspection of the Karachi Fish Harbour and the processing plants by EU experts.
The main reason behind the ban, according to exporters, was failure of the officials who administer the Karachi Fish Harbour to maintain hygienic standards at par with EU specifications. The EU member states which accounted for 54 percent of Pakistan's approximately $150 million seafood exports in 2004-05, had already imposed stringent checks on imports of frozen fish products from Pakistan, following detection of a contaminated consignment of shrimps at Rotterdam in March 2002.
The World Bank has on a number of occasions raised with the Pakistan government the issue of poor quality of its exportable food items, and warned that this would damage the country's exports. The Bank has ascribed the poor quality of our seafood to the absence of a coherent strategy for quality control and strong sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) management mechanisms required for maintaining the internationally accepted hygienic standards.
There is a need for the government to undertake comprehensive stock assessment surveys to fashion suitable amendments to the Fisheries Policy along with expeditious completion of work on aquaculture projects, especially for shrimps, to be able to complete with neighbouring countries. Secondly, provision of subsidised diesel to fishing boat owners should be considered as this can help expand their operational outreach.
Thirdly, catching of small shrimp in creeks through use of Bhola nets should be banned. The ban clamped by Punjab government on netting of fish from June 1 to August 31 is a useful move, which should be followed by other provinces as well.