Pakistan's export of fresh seafood to Middle East has declined over 70 percent this season as Middle East markets are flooded with Indian and Somalian seafood at cheaper prices with a variety of marine edible species. Dubai's bumper seafood catch is also said to have pushed out Pakistani exporters from the once lucrative market, said an exporter, whose fresh fish and shrimp business has recently suffered due to lack of business.
"Fish and shrimp export particularly to Dubai has reduced over 90 percent and other Mideast venues over 70 percent for the lack of buyers to fetch good price," he said, adding Indian and Somalian catch had occupied the market with huge exports.
Previously, an exporter of fresh seafood would easily dispatch a consignment of 2500 kilograms to Dubai per day but now he hardly ships 500 kilograms because the financial crisis in Dubai has shrunk public demand, he added. "A year back, an exporter was sending around 1000 kilograms of shrimp to Dubai but now he could export only 100 kilograms a day to the same market," he said.
Silver and black pomfret, silvery grunter, mackerel red banded grouper, black grouper and a variety of mixed fish, besides tiger shrimp are exported to across the Middle Eastern markets including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan and Dubai, he said.
He said the fast declining seafood export had financially struck the local exporters who were about 20 in the business. On the other hand, the country's import of fish to 3,000 tons worth around $5 million this year, weakening the government's policy of improving exports against imports.
The primary seafood import of fish was Rohu and Pangashius from Vietnam, Thailand and Myanmar. Last year, Pakistan had imported some 1700 tons of the same fish. The country is also facing a sharp decline in its edible marine resources for continued over-fishing with banned size of meshes at 100 kilometres of coastline, within territorial waters and farther.
The decade old excessive fishing has caused marine stocks depletion, which could continue to sweep up the seabed if the government did not take prompt action to stop further irregular sea exploitation. MFD is carrying out a marine stocks census in the country's seawaters to assess the level of exciting marine species. However, officials term the overall situation perilous. There are about 150 different fish species in the country's water.
The country's seafood production peaked in 1993 with 499,159 metric tons, which in later years went down to 474,665 metric tons in 1999. After a decade in 2008, the seafood production significantly declined to 344,684 metric tons, according to statistics of MFD.
In 1947, Pakistan's seafood production was 32,893 metric tons, which increased to 49,525 metric tons a decade after in 1957. The seafood catch swelled in volume to 116,656 metric tons in 1967, which continued to grow to 234,816 metric tons in 1977. Seafood landing surged to 336,129 metric tons in 1987, while in 1997 it reached 422,201 metric tons.
He added total fish import by the entire industry is expected to reach 3,000 tons this year, comprising freshwater and marine edible species. "The import is mixture of all kind of fish including Officials of Marine Fisheries Department (MFD) told Business Recorder that the recent floods had devastated local fish farming sector and demand for vertebrate edibles was higher in the country.
"Local fish crop was lower this year after floods ruined major production farms in Sindh and Punjab provinces, allowing importers to capitalise on the soaring demand," they said. Although, Pakistan's annual seafood export stands near $230 million mark, the fresh surge in fish import is expected to have serious implications on the country's economy and can weaken the government's continued efforts of narrowing trade gap. "The country's national exchequer will suffer a flight of around $5 million for fish import," said fisheries sector sources.
The importer however declined to reveal the fish import per unit price, which according to fisheries sector sources is $1.5, and only said "the imported canned fish fillets is selling between Rs 270 and Rs 280 per kg in different department stores in the country".
Last year, the imported fish volume was some 1700 tons of both Rohu and Pangashius from leading producing countries including Vietnam, Thailand and Myanmar, said the importer. He said Pangashius was a salt-water and Rohu freshwater fish and both had great appeal for their meat on Pakistani markets, as both species were expected to grow their market share.
"Imported canned fish are easily available in department stores across the country at rates cheaper than those of beef and mutton," he added. The other factor behind the rising fish import is seen the diminishing marine stocks on the country 1100 km coastline, in its territorial waters and beyond. Excessive fishing is believed behind the fast decline in the seafood stocks during the last one decade, which is seen also alarming for the next years. Use of small meshes is cited a primary reason behind the carnage of marine species.
MFD is carrying out a marine stocks census in the country's seawaters to assess the level of exciting marine species. However, officials term the overall situation perilous. There are about 150 different fish species in the country's water. The country's seafood production peaked in 1993 with 499,159 metric tons, which in later years went down to 474,665 metric tons in 1999. After a decade in 2008, the seafood production significantly declined to 344,684 metric tons, according to statistics of MFD.
In 1947, Pakistan's seafood production was 32,893 metric tons, which increased to 49,525 metric tons a decade after in 1957. The seafood catch swelled in volume to 116,656 metric tons in 1967, which continued to grow to 234,816 metric tons in 1977. Seafood landing surged to 336,129 metric tons in 1987, while in 1997 it reached 422,201 metric tons.