Shrimp harvesting from the Pakistan’s first of its kind marine aquaculture farm is expected to rescue the country’s sinking seafood exports, but the stakeholders need government support for the underdeveloped fisheries sector.
Shrimp harvesting from the Pakistan’s first of its kind marine aquaculture farm is expected to rescue the country’s sinking seafood exports, but the stakeholders need government support for the underdeveloped fisheries sector.
Run under the public-private partnership, the farm consists of 10 ponds in the neighbourhood of Dhabeji town, 59 kilometres from Karachi. A group of retired naval officers stepped in to operate four of the ponds on commercial basis. They formed a company, Sinora Prime, partnered with the state-run Fisheries Development Board (FDB), and got the ball rolling in July this year. Result?
The venture is about to complete the first four-month production cycle by the mid of this November.
“Only from our two ponds, we have already harvested around 8.4 tonnes of shrimp crop,” Commodore (retd) Sheikh Rashidullah, chief executive officer at Sinora Prime told The News over the phone.
“From all the ponds, the cumulative yields may reach around 60 tons in a less than four-month cycle,” Rashidullah added. “Our facility is at par with the international standards…we developed this with the help of Thailand’s professionals.”
He said next year the output may go further up to 160tns, “As we’re planning crops in two cycles a year.”
Industry sources said earlier a private start-up jumped into this lucrative business, but the company underwent cash flow problems and finally wound up broke.
Albeit using their own resources, the retired naval veterans hoped that they would not face the same fate.
“We chipped in our retirement funds (around Rs15 million) after learning the aquaculture science,” he said. “We are a team of good managers and fisheries sector’s experts with us.”
Since the overfishing is causing destruction to marine resources aquafarming is vital to revitalise the vanishing saltwater populations.
Pakistan, China, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Japan, and some other Asian nations contribute more than half to the world’s total fish production, said the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, in its flagship report, ‘The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2014’.
The FAO, in another report, said a majority of global fish species have depleted due to destructive fishing techniques, which also have negative implications for aquatic ecosystem.
“Our catch plummeted 50 to 60 percent during the last three years due to overfishing and use of banned trawl nets (known as Gujja in vernacular) that catch juvenile fish,” said Muslim Mohammadi, chairman of Pakistan Fisheries Exporters Association.
FDB estimated that fisheries production has been dropping at a rate of two percent per annum since 1998.
Mohammadi said there was no ban in July this year, and therefore fishing continued to destroy fish breeds. “Normally, the ban is for June and July,” he added.
Faisal Iftikhar, chief executive officer at FDB said countries around the world are shifting to saltwater and freshwater farming to counterbalance the depleting seafood.
Iftikhar said India and Thailand are doing shrimp farming.
Shrimp is much sought-after delicious seafood in the international market and it gets much better price than fish.
Industry leader Mohammadi admitted that aquaculture will be a shot in the arm as shrimp and prawn exports account for more than half of the total exports of fish and fish preparations from Pakistan because of its high price. He said they earn the country approximately $200 million a year.
Pakistani exporters are already facing the headwinds from the global economic slowdown.
Mohammadi said there is subdued demand in the international market, consumption is waning “leaving us with a pile of stocks.”
“We’re not getting a good price for our produce,” he added.
Exports of fish and its products dipped 17.23 percent to $65.15 million in the first quarter of the current 2015/16 fiscal year. In July-September 2014, exports of fish and its products amounted $78.72 million.
In quantity terms too, exports fell 9.14 percent to 26,097 metric tonnes from 28,721 metric tonnes.
In September alone, exports dropped 14 percent over the same month a year ago, but were up 114 percent over August 2015.
Pakistan mainly exports fish and its preparations to Saudi Arab, UAE, China, Egypt and Malaysia.
The 28-nation European Union bloc had slapped a ban on seafood imports from Pakistan in April 2007 owing to the latter’s substandard supply chain; however, in early 2013, it gave clearance to two exporters.
Industry sources said another two to five exporters are awaiting the green signal from the EU.
Iftikhar observed that exporters are not interested in EU markets. “Out of the two companies approved, only one is exporting fish to the EU,” he said in support of his argument.
Mohammadi argued that the EU is a big market, which can consume all of Pakistan’s fish exports. Pakistan used to fetch around $50 million/year from seafood exports to EU before the ban.
“Government should use all its resources to revive the falling exports,” he said.
He said the major reasons behind the ban, like “shoddy auction halls and supply chain should be addressed.”
“Roads are dilapidated, power supply is interrupted and water is scarce,” he further said. “If infrastructure is revamped we can send the present annual fisheries exports of $380 million to one billion dollar within one year.”
Fish consumption in Pakistan is very small, which bears out such a claim.
The FAO recorded seafood consumption in Pakistan at 0.6 kilogramme/capita, the lowest in South Asia. The region’s highest is in Sri Lank at 15.3kg/capita.
Fish and fish products account for only 9.1 percent of all animal flesh products eaten as snack, in lunch or dinner in Pakistan. The consumption rate is, however, high in Sindh and Balochistan as compared to the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
There are fish hatcheries around the country, but they are yet to give bulk supply or be involved in intensive farming.
Rashidullah of Sinora said the government should lease lands to the private sector along the coastal belt, “Which is blessed with favourable climate for shrimp farming.”
He said they import seeds (larvae) from Thailand and import duties on them push up the cost of production.
“Seeds must be produced at the local level,” he added. “But, obviously making of seeds locally is viable only when there are buyers in the market…actually it is a chicken and egg situation.”
The writer is a staff member
