Fisheries as a subset of agriculture in Pakistan is considered important for ensuring food security, despite a meagre share in GDP (i.e. less than 0.5%) and modest contribution to agriculture value addition (1.39%). Economic Survey (2022-23) reports a sector growth of 1.44%, up from 0.35% last year. In FY-2023, total fish production reached 700,000 MT (marine: 475000 MT, inland: 225000 MT), inching up by 0.6% from the previous year (marine: 468000 MT, inland: 228000 MT).
According to a World Bank assessment, the fisheries sector serves as a direct source of livelihood for an estimated 390,000 individuals. When factoring in ancillary roles like processing, transportation and retail; the collective employment opportunities generated range from 900,000 to 1,800,000 jobs. The coastal regions of Sindh and Balochistan rely heavily on marine fishing as a substantial economic activity, nonetheless, small-scale aquaculture and inland capture fisheries are simultaneously prevalent throughout Pakistan. But a vast potential is still being wasted.
Pakistan possesses abundant aquatic resources such as rivers, barrages, dams, lakes, wetlands, a 1001 km long coast and an additional 290,270 square km Exclusive Economic Zone in the sea off the coasts of Sindh and Balochistan. Despite the enormous water resources, Pakistan’s aquaculture lags behind its neighbours. FAO reports a 1.5% aquaculture production growth rate for Pakistan, ranking 28th globally. While India and Bangladesh are among the top five aquaculture producers. Similarly, the inland fish production of Bangladesh is ten times more than Pakistan’s despite having half the water resources.
Pakistan exports fish primarily to China, Thailand, Malaysia, the Middle East, Sri Lanka and Japan. Roughly 17% of total fish production enters the global market, falling short of our marine and cultural potential. According to Economic Survey2022-23, in the fiscal year 2023, a substantial sum of 151.030 thousand metric tons (equivalent to US$ 355 million) worth of fish and fish-related products were exported from Pakistan. This was celebrated as a remarkable achievement, showcasing an upswing of 29.8 percent in terms of quantity and 14.8 percent in terms of value.
Pakistan’s fish exports to EU face strict restrictions pertaining to production and trade quality standards. However Southeast Asian countries offer Pakistan handsome export opportunities as there are no specific trade barriers as well as an increasingly growing market for seafood. However, over fishing in marine capture and inefficiencies in inland farming are keeping us from realizing the true potential of fisheries trade. According to a stock assessment survey by FAO, fisheries in Pakistan are over-utilized.
The Fisheries Resource Appraisal in Pakistan Project (FRAPP) concluded that fishing capacity in Pakistan is greatly challenged by depleted fish stocks of nine out of twelve major fishing species. The progress in the transformation of fisheries and aquaculture production systems aligns well with the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To this end, there is a need of an overarching enabling environment for improvement in performance and productivity through better governance, structural innovation and quality assurance.
EU, USA and Japan are the world’s biggest export markets for fish, but Pakistan has been able to capture only 3% of this market share due to low-quality products. As per the FAO assessment, Pakistan needs to opt for commercial aquaculture along its coastline following the trend of other regional players. Value-added production and post-harvest processing ensuring standardized quality controls while adopting up-to-date technologies, such as ‘digital species identification’ of marine organisms of potential interest to fisheries and aquaculture and more export integration, is the way forward to expand fish trade volumes in Pakistan.
A coherent governance framework is needed to ensure that fisheries are environmentally sustainable and not depleted. This needs effective management and monitoring through licensing and quotas. For example, as the standard international practice dictates, a comprehensive legal framework may allocate waterway usage based on resource-rent or quota system, issuing non-transferable rights in limited number for a limited time for local capture. This may deter illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Demarcation of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and licensing the fishing based on ecological zoning could be the right step in the right direction.
Legislation has been done to regulate fisheries but there is fragmentation of laws and policies. Technically, the context of marine fisheries lacks clarity as it seeks roles from different ministries/departments at Federal (i.e. Ministry of Maritime Affairs as well as Ministry of National Food Security and Research) and Provincial levels (i.e. Sindh and Balochistan).There is a need for synchronization of laws and policies across federal, provincial and local institutions for effective enforcement.
Easing and assisting in the process of seeking Maritime Stewardship Council (MSC) certifications for national fisheries of Pakistan is needed. Instead of regulation, there is a need to overhaul the fisheries of Pakistan. Invest in a vertically integrated supply-chain with a focus on increasing production while ensuring conservation of the fish stocks.