Pakistan

Supported by a 2 billion rupees (US$33.4 million) budget to increase fish and shrimp output, the government programme is intended to boost fisheries exports through a public-private partnership based on sustainable production growth of marine and inland fisheries.

Announcing the new initiative in December, the government told Pakistan's fishing community that the new National Fisheries Policy could result in increased fishery production of about 53,000 metric tons (mt) per year and higher seafood exports. The key to increasing fishery exports will be the achievement of a substantial reduction in the waste catch which, along with over-fishing, has held back fisheries development in recent years.

Based on FAO figures for fisheries production in the early 2000s, Pakistan is thought to record a marine catch of about 420,000mt a year, of which about 85,000mt or 20% of the total catch is exported. Shrimp is the main export item in terms of value while fish are the largest item in tonnage terms, but usually lower than shrimp in value.

EU countries traditionally provide the largest market for Pakistan's fishery exports, taking about half of total exports by value. Apart from EU countries, the other major markets for shrimp are Japan and the United States.

China, South Korea and the Middle East are the main export markets for fish. China and South Korea buy frozen fish for processing while the nearby Middle East market prefers chilled fish. Tuna is the highest value fish caught, mostly yellow fin tuna that is exported to East Asia for sashimi along with shark fins. Some tuna tonnage is sold through border trade for canning in neighbouring Iran.

About 60% of Pakistan's non-exported marine fishery catch, equivalent to about 170,000mt of fish, is used to produce about 37,000mt of fishmeal, most of which is used locally in poultry feed. Consequently only about 160,000mt of marine fishery production is consumed domestically in fish form each year. Local fish consumption also includes freshwater species with about 170,000mt of fish produced from inland waters also being consumed each year.

The high waste catch recorded is one of the reasons that per capita seafood consumption in Pakistan is one of the lowest in Asia, at about 2kg per capita a year. Fishery products are consumed mainly in the coastal region where about 20 million of the country's 144 million population live. High transport costs and limited cold storage facilities mean that the inland market price of fish is high compared to the coastal region and less affordable than animal meat and other products.

The introduction of the National Fisheries Policy comes at a time when the marine fishing industry is badly in need of government support to ensure its long term growth and development. According to local newspaper reports, seafood exports have fallen by about US$100 million in the current financial year July 2007 to June 2008, due to a ban on fishery exports to the European Union (EU) that Pakistan's federally-administered Marine Fisheries Department has imposed due to quality problems at fishery processing plants in Karachi.

The import ban was imposed in April 2007 following an earlier request from the EU that the government take steps to tackle hygiene standards deficiencies at processing plants. The request followed an earlier visit by a team of EU inspectors to processing plants in Karachi when MFD officials were warned of steps that needed to be taken to eliminate poor sanitary standards and to improve post-harvest quality control in fish handling and storage.

The current ban is the third that Pakistan has faced over failure to comply with EU export standards. The first export ban was imposed in 1998 and the second in February 2005, before the third was imposed in April 2007.

This year will be the second year running that fishery exports have dropped. Fishery exports fell by about US$30 million or 16% to $160 million in the year to June 2007, after the EU export ban was imposed in April.

Fish exporters are blaming MFD officials for the lengthy EU export ban claiming that processing plants had rectified problems that EU visiting inspectors had complained of and had submitted compliance notices which have not been acted upon. The EU has appointed MFD as the competent inspection agency in Pakistan and exports are not permitted until MFD officials give the go ahead.

Fishermen and seafood exporters are hoping the EU export ban may be lifted following a series of meetings in February aiming to solve the issue. After fishermen and fishing boat owner representatives met with officials from MFD and Karachi Fisheries Harbour Authority, a meeting was arranged between the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) to discuss ways of lifting the EU ban on seafood exports including the use of plastic containers to replace other storage methods. The various interest groups are now due to visit affected seafood processing plants to resolve the outstanding issues so exports to the EU can begin again.

Problems with EU export bans are holding back development of Pakistan's fisheries processing industry as new companies are reluctant to enter the business fearing that exports may suddenly be suspended.

“Pakistan has not gone into value added processing in a big way. There is a small amount of fish filleting and squid cleaning. One company cans crab meat,” explained Faisal Iftikhar, vice chairman of Pakistan Seafood Industries Association, “All shrimp exported to Europe is for reprocessing. Nothing goes direct to the consumer from here.”

“There are problems supplying bulk seafood to Europe. We get banned every year. The problem is government functionaries are making blunders. Business people worry if they go into value added fisheries processing and there is an EU ban, then where will they end up? That's why fisheries processing is not growing here.”

Karachi is the centre of the fishing industry with about 6,000 of Pakistan's estimated 13,000 fishing vessels using Karachi Fish Harbour. The total marine fishing fleet includes about 2,600 shrimp trawlers and about 3,600 gill netters. Other fishing boats are mainly motor-cum-sail boats with outboard engines.

“Pakistan fleet owners used to go into international waters, now they stay in Pakistan territorial waters. The rest are day fishermen. Trawlers sell to wholesale suppliers and processing companies buy their supplies from them,” Iftikhar said.

“Three fishing zones were established in 2004. The zone up to 12 miles is reserved for day fishermen, while waters from 12 miles to 35 miles were fished by 20 licensed Chinese and South Korean trawlers. Waters 35 miles out and beyond are for tuna fishermen and long liners.”

“The 12 to 35 miles zone was not a success and the foreign trawlers have left. The fishing industry found that the inshore zone up to 12 miles out is where most fish are. The zone 35 miles and beyond also was producing, but not now.”

Pakistan has a 1,100km coastline that stretches from the frontier with India in the east to the frontier with Iran in the west. Karachi, capital of Sindh province, is Pakistan's largest coastal city and major fishing port.

While this situation is not expected to change, the pattern of fisheries development has changed in recent years following construction of a coastal highway from Karachi along Pakistan's western seaboard to the new deep sea port of Gwadar in Baluchistan province.

“Most of seafood exporters are based in Karachi though some have moved to Baluchistan recently because the 700km coastal highway has been completed to Gwadar,” Iftikhar said, “There are many coastal fishing villages in Baluchistan as now it is a five to six hour road journey from there to Karachi. Before the highway was built it was a two day journey.”

“People have prospered along the coast because of the highway. People are going to where the fish are. There is over-fishing on the Sindh coast around Karachi. Now most fish are coming from Baluchistan. Processing factories are going there and financing the fishermen. Large fleets are fishing there now.”

According to government estimates, Pakistan's fisheries industry is worth about US$1.2 billion a year of which exports are worth about $200 million. In addition to about 185,000 fishermen, another 600,000 people are estimated to rely directly or indirectly on the fishing industry for their livelihood.

As part of official support for the first National Fisheries Policy, the government announced in January that work is underway preparing a US$10 million action plan to modernise and upgrade Karachi Fisheries Harbour Authority which owns and manages the fishing port.

Plans call for the authority to be developed into a profitable organisation following the model of Sidney Fish Market in Australia. Funding will be provided jointly by the Federal government, the Ministry of Finance's Competitive Support Fund and Sindh provincial government.

Insufficient funding and inadequate staffing currently prevent Karachi Fisheries Harbour Authority from functioning effectively. Fishery officials say this is a major cause of quality problems facing some fishery products landed at the port, which contribute to high waste and a failure to maximise the value of the fish catch.

Still to be finalised, the action plan will include changes to the authority's management structure, the purchase of infrastructure and equipment to improve the quality and value of fish in cold storage compared with present facilities, and greater support for the development of value added processing.

Over-fishing is another problem where government support is being called for by seafood exporters. Enforcement of existing regulations is the main issue.

Failure by authorities in Sindh to prevent the illegal use of fine mesh fishing nets is a major cause of over-fishing in the province's coastal waters, according to Iftikhar, much of which is used for fishmeal. This problem is now appearing in Baluchistan province's coastal waters where Sindh fishermen now are permitted to fish after previously not being allowed to fish there.

“About 60% of Pakistan's marine catch is used for fishmeal for local poultry feed. It's a huge waste of resources,” Iftikhar commented, “We have given many presentations to the government about this. The laws are there but they are not implementing them. Crabs are declining on a massive scale; also pomfret as fishermen catch every size. There are heavily fished creeks along the coast which should be protected as they are natural fish hatcheries.”

Pakistan has two fishing seasons. The August to November season is for shrimp that are mostly for export. Smaller size shrimp mostly are exported to Europe, while larger shrimp are shipped to Japan.

Fish are caught from October to June, the peak being March to May. Ribbon fish, croakers, sole and some other species are exported to South Korea and China. Indian mackerel are exported to Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, while chilled fish are exported to Singapore and the Middle East.

Greater enforcement of rules to prevent over-fishing will be necessary if Pakistan's marine fisheries industry is to develop successfully in future.

“We feel the government has got to act. There are good laws already, but there is a need to ensure there is no creek fishing,” Iftikhar noted. “Enforcing fishing net mesh sizes as per regulations would reduce the number of high price fish caught young; also, catches of crabs and lobsters with eggs. We need a sustainable catch otherwise there will be few resources left. June and July are closed, so it's a 10 month fishing year.”

“We don't need money. We just need to implement the law. We don't even want a fish fleet reduction, no creek fishing, correct net mesh use, and crab and lobster eggs protection. Fishing boats don't have sonar here, so actually this is good because if we had fish finders there would be nothing left.”