LAHORE: Moazzam Ghurki, President Pakistan China Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCJCCI) expressed his views during a think tank session held at PCJCCI Secretariat that in seafood exports; China is the compulsory aspect of our sales. Pakistan is endowed with rich fishing potential and its seafood export has shown robust growth. President PCJCCI said that the seafood exports during July-May (2020-21) were recorded at $383.088 million against the exports of $373.382 million in July-May (2019-20), showing growth of around 2.6 percent, according to the latest data of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). He added that the export to China takes up a great proportion.
Fang Yulong, Senior Vice President PCJCCI said that according to data from International Trade Center (ITC), Pakistan’s exports of fish and aquatic products to China accounted for 29% of Pakistan’s total exports of such products in 2019. 7-8 different types of fish are mostly consumed in China. There is a Tianjin City where our Sole Fish is very popular. Pakistan’s 70% Sole Fish is consumed in that city. The most exported fishes from Pakistan to China are Ribbonfish, Squid, Mackerel and Sole Fish.
Hamza Khalid, Vice President PCJCCI said that the Pakistani fishery industry should switch to value addition. In export, value-added products are of more importance and when you have a product less in quantity and you sell it as a value-added product, then it will give you more benefit in income. This is the way to increase export and open job opportunities for locals. He added that there is only one factory that has just started working on nitrogen-based quick-freezing ice. This technology helps in maintaining the quality. The product freezes fast.
Salahuddin Hanif, Secretary General PCJCCI said that Chinese are very interested in investing in Pakistan, and Pakistan exports a huge amount of fish to China that is reprocessed there and then exported in the world, these Chinese traders can carry out this processing here in Pakistan because the labour here is cheaper, the raw material is fresh and the extra cost of transporting from Pakistan to China will be removed.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023