By Nazia Sher
Pakistan’s fisheries sector has crossed the USD 500 million export threshold, marking steady progress in the blue economy. According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (2025) and the ITC Trade Map, seafood exports reached approximately 216,350 metric tons worth USD 465 million in FY2024–25, reflecting growth of around 8–13 percent in both value and volume. Despite this progress, structural governance weaknesses continue to constrain long-term transformation.
Fisheries governance in Pakistan remains fragmented across institutions. Provincial governments are responsible for production, licensing, and inland fisheries, while federal institutions manage maritime security, trade facilitation, and international reporting obligations. The absence of a unified national fisheries authority has resulted in weak coordination, inconsistent enforcement, and fragmented data systems across the value chain. Following the 18th Amendment, fisheries were largely devolved to provinces; however, the lack of integrated regulatory oversight has weakened vertical policy coherence between catch management, monitoring, and export certification systems.
Export structure further highlights this imbalance. China remains the dominant market, accounting for nearly 60 percent of total exports (approximately USD 150–180 million annually), while Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, Japan, and Malaysia collectively absorb the remaining share. This concentration exposes the sector to external market dependency risks and limits diversification. More critically, Pakistan’s export basket remains dominated by low-value products. Around 70 to 75 percent of exports consist of frozen fish, shrimp, and cuttlefish, while value-added processed products remain below 25 to 30 percent, reflecting weak processing capacity and limited branding in global seafood markets.
In global seafood trade, competitiveness is increasingly determined by traceability, certification, and sanitary and phytosanitary compliance rather than volume alone. Although Pakistan has introduced partial compliance systems, full end-to-end traceability coverage remains below 40 percent, restricting access to premium international markets.
Pakistan’s tuna fisheries are governed under the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) framework, which allocates quotas based on scientific stock assessments. Pakistan has an estimated tuna quota of approximately 25,000 metric tons, including yellowfin and skipjack species, with a potential export value of around USD 200 million. However, limited vessel monitoring systems, weak observer coverage, and incomplete reporting mechanisms restrict full quota utilization and limit access to high-value tuna supply chains.
Globally, illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing is estimated to cost USD 10 to 20 billion annually, according to the FAO. In Pakistan’s Exclusive Economic Zone, weak surveillance, limited vessel tracking systems, and enforcement gaps are estimated to result in 10 to 15 percent potential catch losses, undermining both sustainability and revenue generation.
Aquaculture, which now contributes more than 50 percent of global seafood supply according to FAO SOFIA, remains underdeveloped in Pakistan, accounting for only 15 to 20 percent of national fish production. In contrast, countries such as Vietnam and Indonesia derive over 70 percent of fisheries output from aquaculture, supported by zoning policies, investment facilitation, and integrated value chains.
Pakistan’s fisheries sector highlights governance failure despite strong technical potential in cage culture, biofloc, and RAS systems. Adoption remains below 25 percent due to lack of an aquaculture zoning policy and weak institutional coordination. This fragmentation has led to 20–30 percent post-harvest losses, only 20–25 percent utilization of processing plants, poor cold chain infrastructure, and limited value addition, reflecting a clear gap between policy design and implementation.
The proposed Korangi Fisheries Harbour processing and export zone, valued at USD 60 to 80 million, could serve as a strategic intervention. If implemented effectively, it may increase processed seafood exports by 30 to 40 percent, enabling a shift from raw commodity exports toward higher-value, certified products.
Pakistan’s fisheries sector is therefore not constrained by resource scarcity but by governance fragmentation and institutional inefficiency. Export growth is evident, but systemic integration remains absent. Without integrated governance linking regulation, monitoring, data systems, traceability, and certification, Pakistan will continue to expand in volume but fail to capture value. Pakistan is not short of fish. It is short of governance coherence, and in the global blue economy that remains the binding constraint.
(The writer is a research associate at the National Institute of Maritime Affairs (NIMA) Pakistan. The views expressed are her own. She can be reached at editorial@metro-morning.com)
