KARACHI, Aug 4: Representatives of the fishing community on Monday said that the fishermen were incurring huge losses as exporters were not paying them adequately for their catch.

The president of the Sindh Fishing Trawlers Owners Association (STOFA), Haji Mir Khan, said that the seafood exporters were buying Jaira (large shrimp) for Rs265 per kilo while its actual rates should be Rs600 a kilo.

“Similarly, kalri (medium size shrimp) is fetching a rate of Rs135 a kilo against its actual rate of 250 per kilo and kiddi (small shrimp) is being purchased at Rs70 per kilo instead of Rs150 a kilo”, he said.

Mr Khan said that the cost of each trip of a fishing launch was around Rs650,000 mainly due to an increase in the fuel prices while the income from the catch was only Rs250,000.

He said that due to this imbalance in investment and income, a large number of fishermen had been forced to dock their boats at the fish harbour.

Usually, about 500 to 600 fishing boats go for fishing every day during the fishing season. This time only 30 to 40 boats are in the sea for fishing.

However, seafood exporters clarified that the reason behind the low rates of shrimps was a ban on Pakistani seafood export by the European Union (EU).

“Our shrimps fetch better prices in EU countries. But this year we are selling shrimps to other markets due to the ban where prices are not good”, said a seafood exporter. He said that fish was getting good prices as buyers in Kuwait paid much better.

He said that the quantity of fish was also very low these days.—APP