Multiple structural issues continue to undermine the potential of the fisheries sector. While fishermen and exporters, braving all odds, are contributing to growth of seafood exports, they expect renewed and required policy focus.

Despite heavy odds as under-hauling of fish, overcrowded fish harbours and lack of proper processing facilities, seafood exports have grown over the last few years, even during the 7-year long EU ban on seafood buying from Pakistan from 2007-2013.

Export earnings grew from $213m in FY08 to $367m in FY14—an average annual increase of 12pc plus.

Penetration into non-conventional markets like North Africa and China, increase in export volumes to traditional Middle Eastern markets and improvement in fish and shrimp processing undertaken by some leading exporters can be cited as driving forces behind growth in exports.

The lifting of the EU ban last year has provided us with an opportunity to build upon earlier gains in exports. But fishermen and exporters say unless structural problems undermining the potential of fisheries’ sector are resolved, sustaining exports growth would become too difficult.


Over-fishing is depleting the resource base and is making fish hauls more time-consuming and financially less rewarding for fishermen


During July-September this calender year, seafood exports had fallen by 7pc in volumes and by 8pc in earnings which exporters attribute chiefly to reduced turnout of workers at fisheries due to business shutdowns in Lyari and adjoining areas and slower processing of export consignments at the port due to political disturbances in Karachi.

Some analysts say over-fishing and low quality controls are real impediments to sustainable growth of seafood industry. Over-fishing is depleting the resource base and is making fish hauls more time-consuming and financially less rewarding for fishermen. And, poor quality controls continue to affect seafood exports. The fact that the EU is importing seafood from a few selected companies suggests that a lot more still needs to be done.

Fisheries’ sector potential cannot be exploited without putting a check on over-fishing. “But over-fishing continues because we’ve failed to equip our fishermen to catch fish from our entire marine jurisdiction (200 nautical miles from the coast), not just from selected pockets,” says an official of Sindh Livestock and Fisheries Department.

Fishermen say shortage of trawlers and power-boats makes it difficult for them to do fishing in wider areas, adding that a majority of them, who own small conventional boats, continue to catch fish within 10-50 nautical miles from the coast.

They also say years of illegal fishing in deeper waters by foreign trawlers has also reduced breeding of certain fish species even within the areas from where they catch fish. Similarly, reckless cutting of mangrove forests amid no initiatives for reforestation along the Arabian Sea coast have reduced shrimp availability.

These are a few key reasons for over-fishing in selected fish-breeding beds of waters.

Besides, out of 3,000 plus fishing trawlers and power boats in Karachi, many remain out of order and fishermen cannot repair them on time for want of money. And, more than half of some 10,000 small fishing vessels lack facilities like power-generators of adequate capacity, proper deep freezers and dividers meant for storing fish of different kinds separately.

These and similar issues continue to hit fisheries sector hard. Production of marine fish fell from 668,000 tonnes in nine months of FY10 to 335,000 tonnes in the same period of FY13 whereas production of inland or freshwater fish declined from 285,000 tonnes to 155,000 tonnes, according to the economic survey of Pakistan.

This fall in production is one of the reasons for low growth in volumes of fish exports which remained range-bound between 125,000-140,000 tonnes for past several years before rising, for the first time, to 155,000 tonnes in FY14.

Fishermen from Balochistan blame that after almost exhausting the fish stocks off the Karachi coast, big fishermen from Karachi, who own trawlers and power boats, are now engaged in over-fishing in marine jurisdiction of Balochistan. They say this is not only depriving local population of their rights but is also fast depleting fish stocks in marine jurisdiction of Makran coast as well. “What will they do once they stop getting enough fish even from here?” questions Muhammad Ali Shah, chairman of Pakistan Fishermen Forum.

Fishermen say instead of promoting deep-water fishing in those fishing pockets of territorial waters that remain unexploited for lack of resources, authorities are encouraging over-fishing in the Makran coast. “This may keep fish production and export going for some years, but this isn’t the solution to structural problems of our fisheries sector, they argue.

Besides, exporters point out that Karachi fish harbour is over-crowded and lacks basic facilities, and frequent power outages continue to affect their business.

Fishermen complain that even the fee collected from them by Fishermen Cooperative Society is not used for supporting them when they get out of jobs due to seasonal ban on deep sea fishing or when boats are recalled from the sea, as they were just recently, due to threats of a cyclone.

Published in Dawn, Economic & Business, November 10th, 2014

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