As per the figure released by Pakistani authority seafood exports have grown up by 13.5 percent to $28.6 million with a 5 percent growth in volume for the first five months of the current financial year 2011-2012. The Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) informed that Pakistan is facing EU ban since 2007 and unable to resume seafood exports despite local authorities’ efforts to meet EU requirements.
Marine Fishing Department (MFD) said in its report that Pakistan’s exports had met majority of the EU standards, but no action has been taken so far by the EU to lift the ban. This EU ban has prompted Pakistan to look to new Asian markets for its seafood exports such as Bangladesh, Brunei, China, Egypt, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iran, Lebanon, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand etc.
Pakistan government said that they have taken a number of initiatives to further increase the export of fish and fish preparation. This includes the expansion of existing laboratory infrastructure to provide testing and certification facilities acceptable to destination markets and financial support to revamp fish jetties.
