Pakistan hit a record total for seafood exports in its recently concluded 2017-2018 fiscal year.
The central Asian country recorded USD 451 million (EUR 389.3 million) in total seafood exports, according to Pakistan’s Business Recorder. The figure represented an increase of 15 percent, or USD 57.4 million (EUR 49.5 million) over the 2016-2017 fiscal year, when Pakistan recorded USD 393.7 million (EUR 339.8 million) in exports.
"Healthy landing of shrimp and fish species helped post the record seafood export," Sindh Trawlers Owners and Fishermen Association (Stofa) President Habibullah Khan Niazi told Business Recorder.
The country also experienced an increase in export volumes. Export totals ballooned from 155,091 metric tons between July 2016 and June 2017 to 198,420 MT between July 2017 and June 2018. The total represented a boost of 43,329 MT, or 28 percent.
The increase came despite a two-month fishing ban that takes place annually in June and July. Exports in June 2018 were down 7.31 percent, or USD 2.1 million (EUR 1.8 million) to USD 29.2 million (EUR 25.2 million) year-over-year. However, seafood exports grew by two percent to 11,975 MT in June 2018, up from 11,779 MT in June 2017.
Niazi said the ban was helping the country’s wild fisheries replenish themselves and called for better enforcement of the ban by the government.
"The two-month ban on fisheries hunt is crucial to let the seafood export grow in years to come, which should continue for the fisheries sector growth as well,” he told Business Recorder. "[Lack of enforcement] pose[s] a perilous threat to the growth of shrimp and fish species from use of banned nets that ravage the breeding and reproduction of the species, resultantly the species population is reducing every year.”
Photo courtesy of Pakistan Today
