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A study on Exports of Fish and Fish products and their Role in Economic
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DOI: 10.5376/ijms.2014.04.0064

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 International Journal of Marine Science 2014, Vol.4, No.64, 1-4
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Research Report Open Access

A study on Exports of Fish and Fish products and their Role in Economic Growth
of Pakistan
Kiran Nazir, Mu Yongtong , Khadim Hussain, Mohsin Ali Kalhoro, SellyKartika
College of Fisheries, Ocean University of China Qingdao, 266100, China
Corresponding author email: [email protected]
International Journal of Marine Science, 2014, Vol.4, No.64 doi: 10.5376/ijms.2014.04.0064
Received: 27 Sep., 2014
Accepted: 23 Oct., 2014
Published: 10 Nov., 2014
Copyright © 2014 Nazir et al., This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted
use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article:
Nazir et al., 2014, A study on Exports of Fish and Fish products and their Role in Economic Growth of Pakistan, International Journal of Marine Science, Vol.4,
No.64 1-4 (doi: 10.5376/ijms.2014.04.0064)

Abstract The objective of this study is to evaluate exports of fish and fisheries products and their importance in the ground of
Pakistan’s economy. Pakistani seafood has a significant export potential. A widespreaddiversity of commercially valued products are
available. The results showed exports of Fish and fisheries products tend to increase in most years but fluctuated during the past years.
In 2011 exports of Pakistani fisheries products grew significantly in volume about 131,000 tonnes and USD226m in value. Study has
suggested that Government and experienced authority of Pakistan should give serious attention in food safety of imported and
exported fishery productsand to manage export of Fisheries products into real economic resources. It is expected that in the near
future a number of processing establishments will be re-approved to gain better position in the international sea food exports market.
Keywords Seafood; Fish products; Export; Economy; Karachi Harbour; Pakistan

Introduction According to a new report published by Transparency

Fish and Fisheries products serves primary source of Market Research” Fish Oil Market for Aquaculture”.
food which provide high quality protein. Over one Global market for fish oil was valued at USD 1.1
billion people depend on fish as a food to get animal billion in 2011 and is expected to reach USD 1.7 billion
protein. (World Health Organization, 2012). Fish and in 2018, (Dublin, 2014).
fish products have a contemporary, healthy image
Pakistan holds a large variety of fish, shrimps and
(Tidwell, 2010).
prawns. More than 1000 diversities are found in the
They fulfill requirement of protein, important vitamins, territorial waters of the Mekran Coast.Out of total
minerals and omega 3 fatty acids for a human body. production Marine fisheries account for about 81%,
Fish oil is suggested to reduce inflammation 90 % of the total marine catch constitute of fish.
throughout the human body and to reduce Cholesterol. Shrimps comprises only 10% of the production but
(Mogadashian, 2008), (Food Sc. And Nutrition). Shrimps are of much importance due to their value
Fisheries products have great economic value. and demand in foreign markets.
Pearlescence is a kind of ingredient found in fish
The production of inland fisheries is quite low due to
scales that has been used in some lipsticks. (Cecil,
lack of aquaculture activities, shortage of finishing
2000).
gears and equipment, lack of trained and skilled
In Ireland and UK Cod (White fish) is the most manpower and insufficient handling, unavailability of
demanding fish despite of the fact their production distribution facilities.A multi-variety handling system
have largely decreased in Atlantic region they import has been framed in which fish, shrimp, mussels and
Cod fish now a days. Featured Articles, 2011). algae are the main stored products. Activities of
seafood processing include cold storing, freezing,
In New Dehli , 2013-14 the volume of fish and fish
drying, smoking, canning etc.
products exported was 9,83,756 tonnes worth
Rs.30,213.26 crore as compared to 2009-10 (6,78,436 The major types of processed products are categorized
tonnes; Rs.10,048.53 crore). (Indo Asian News, 2014). as follows frozen products, dried products, smoked
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products, canned products, Surmi products, fish meal Table 1 Exports of Fish and Fish Products in Pakistan
products made by fish oil and fish liver, additives and (1989-1992) Value in USD
seasoning products, medicines, alga glue art craft (pearl). Products Year
1989-90 1990-91 1991-92
In the developed countries average daily consumption Fresh or Frozen Fish 10 13 18
of fish is expected to about 40 kgs. per capita per year. Dried Fish 12 13 17
Shrimps 13 14 18
In Pakistan compared to other neighboring countries it Lobsters and Crabs 8 7 10
is only 3.09 kg. Cuttle fish Octopus 3 2.9 3
Total 46 49 66
There is hardly any progress in the per capita Value in million 94.4 98 114.71
consumption of fish. In European countries per capita Note: Source: Export Promotion Bureau, Government of Pakistan
consumption of fish is 20 kgs, and in Japan it is 78 kgs,
and Bangladesh 11 kgs.(MFD, 1994). 2.2 Exports during 1991-1995
The per capita consumption of fish in the country is
This study is an attempt to notice export of Fish
very low i.e. 2 kg. Fish export is an important source
products and to monitor current condition of economy
of foreign exchange. Pakistan earned about $115
due to exports of fishery products in Pakistan.
million from the exports of fish and shrimp products
1 Material and Methods in 1991-92 which is 1.7 per cent of our total export
A broad literature review related to export of Fish earnings.
products was used to achieve the objective of this
Total export performance of industrial processed fish
paper. Pakistan as a developing country has
products during the last decade (1984-1993) fluctuated
data-limited situations in fisheries. The information
between 22,049 metric tonnes and 58,654 metric
needed for this study was collected from the
tonnes. The rate of increase over the last years 1995
concerned institution and some various related
was 9.7% in terms of quantity and 75.3% in terms of
publications. Most of the data on export of Fish
value. (MFD 1995).
products of Pakistan was derived from secondary
sources such as FAO Fishery and Aquaculture 2.3 Exports during 1996-2003
statistics. Marine Fisheries department (MFD) The export of frozen products during 1999-2003 was
government of Pakistan. Fisheries Reports and directed to 47 countries UK, Japan, Netherland,
publications or journals related to Fishery export in Belgium and USA were the major importing
Pakistan. countries.The export of frozen fishery products
compose of shrimps , crabs and fishes etc. Which has
2 Results
mixed trend during the period from 1999-2003. It was
In Pakistan fish and shrimp are treated in form of
57,167 metric tons valued at Rs 5.711 billion in 1999
chilled, frozen, cured and canned products. There are
and 77,345 metric tons values at 6.579 billion in 2003.
26 fish processing plants in Pakistan with the capacity
Table 2 (MFD 2006).
to process 253.75 metric tons of fish and shrimp daily.
Almost 100% of the frozen and canned products are
Table 2 Exports of Frozen Fishery Products of Pakistan
exported while bulk of processed fish meal is
(1996-2003) Quantity Metric tons. Value in USD
consumed in the country in the making of poultry feed.
Year Quantity Value US$
(MFD source)
1996 45,746 42,284.85
2.1 Exports during 1989-1990 1997 53,904 60,274.07
Pakistan exports large amounts of fish and fish products 1998 46,040 46,963.44
1999 57,167 55,668.29
to European and Middle East countries. Export of fish
2000 52,189 62,660.13
and fish products increased from 47,000 tonnes worth 2001 52,239 61,929.37
$94.40 million in 1989-90 to 66,000 tonnes worth 2002 51,351 54,003.04
$114.71 million in 1991-92, there was an increase of 10 2003 77,345 64,129.89
per cent annum in terms of value. Export of fish and Note: Source : MFD (Marine Fisheries Department, Government
fish processing for the last three years is given in Table 1. of Pakistan 2006)
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2.4 Exports during 2004-2011 131,000 tonnes, indicating a total value of USD226m.
In 2004 the total value of seafood exports from Table 3 It looked that all product groups have
Pakistan was almost USD40m.In 2008 export volume increased in value. Two new product groups (molluscs
of Pakistani seafood products has improved from and fish fil-lets and pieces) arose and of the larger
80,000 tonnes in 2000 to more than 130,000 tonnes in product groups especially frozen whole fish and
2008 and in 2011, the export volume persisted at smoked fish in-creased rapidly.

Table 3 Exports of Fisheries in Pakistan(2003-2010) Value in USD 000

Fish Products Years
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Crustacean 45,618 23,058 34,351 34,297 46,366 58,499 46,843 64,771
Fish frozen 70,628 71,107 83,536 101,293 84,101 119,655 121,926 138,814
Fish fillet 129 15,03 2,160 7,236 4,242 682 7,956 929
Fish smoked 7,562 7,165 6,451 9,971 11,878 13,707 12,178 17,857
Live Fish 493 185 397 426 359 265 461 1,207
Fresh fish whole 13,512 10,650 19,453 14,251 11,951 23,662 3,545 5,748
Molluscs 3 21 309 239 2,194 10,78 0 1,713
Note : Source: International Trade Center (2011)

3 Discussion one hand and promotedifferent products on the

From Table 3 it showed that the export markets of processing of value added products. Value added fish
Pakistan changed drastically in 2003 and 2010. One of products may be i) mince or mince based products ii)
the main reasons for this change is the ban of battered and breaded or coated products and iii) surimi
Pakistani seafood products from the EU (European) based products. (Subhendu Kolkata Centre)
market.
In Pakistan there is a variety of problems, mostly
For all the capture fisheries products it is important to related to sustainability and the political environment,
note that according to the FAO for the Marine which made it unsafe to work with the Pakistani
Resource Assessment Project it is clear that stocks in seafood sector. The final very important progress is
the target of TRTA II (Trade related Technical
Pakistani water are under pressure and that it is not
Assistance) programme and the Pakistani government
suitable to increase catches from marine sources.
to move the experienced authority from MFD and
Therefore, if exports are supported this should always
form a new Federal Food Safety, Plant and Animal
go hand in hand with fish stock protection
Health Authority. This should help Pakistan to create
program.According to FAO report it is concluded that
a trans-sector methodology for food safety and this
this is because of fish stocks are being over-exploited. could be a sourceof exchange of knowledge and
The export figures obtained from MFD and FAO experience between different food safety departments.
sources it was clear that Pakistani shrimp has a high (Wegningen, CBI Ministry of Netherland, 2012).
potential in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, 4 Conclusion
while fish has a high potential in Great Britain. This study has emphasized the situation of fish and
Consumption of fish may be significantly increased if fishery exports and their relation with economy
better strategies applies on existing catch. Due to growth. From the detailed reviews of many citations
improper infrastructural facilities the quality of the exports of fish and fish products could be an important
fish is reduced mainly in developing countries and part of Pakistan’s economy which will directly impact
Pakistan is included in this category. Through progress on national income.
in groundwork facilities, the quality of the landings
can be raised for direct human consumption. The There should be a system which comprises of senior
maintenance of these species may be accomplished by competent government officials authority and
use of advance handling and processing techniques on provincial governments to investigate specific interest
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to establish seafood export market. Many international Marine Fisheries Department and (CBI) Ministry of foreign
organizations are active in Pakistan and launching affairs of Netherland for providing data about Mollusc Fishery
new methodologies to create a broad outline of their of Pakistan.
future plans and motivations for the Pakistani fisheries References
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(http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2544/does-lipstick-contain
Pakistani experts are currently developing a plan on -fish-scales).
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of fish and fish products. A central food safety (http://article.wn.com/view/2014/08/12/Floating_Production_Systems_
authority might also satisfy the FAO easier about the Market_Global_Industry_Analysis).
Featured articles; cheaper fish products, 13 July, 2011
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safety regulations. heaper-fish-products
Indo Asian News Service; Fish and Fish products export grew 3-fold in 5
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(https://en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com/fish-fish-products-export-grew-3-
seafood products. Particular attention should be paid fold-5-132640331.html
to interview the concerned people and/or Marine Fisheries Department ; An analysis of production, prices, exports
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reapproved their quality and food safety to attain Products, 1995-2006
Moghadasian, M. H., May 2008, Advances in dietary enrichment with n-3 fatty
better place in the international exports market. acids. Critical Review of Food Science and Nutrition, Vol. 48 (5): 402-10
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10408390701424303
Acknowledgment Subhendu., D., Kolkata Centre, Value Added Fish Products
The first author is thankful to Chinese Scholarship Council (www.scribd.co/doc/62632264/Value-Added-Fish-Products-Popular-A
rticle)
(CSC) for funding her PhD Degree. This work is supported by
Wageningen; L., Pakistan seafood exports Quick scan of the EU market
the special research fund of Ocean University of China.We potential, April 2012
acknowledge Food and Agriculture department (FAO) , (MFD) Tidwell; J., Allan H., and Geoff L, Private communications, 2010

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