Seafood export to Egypt comes to a halt

ANWAR KHAN

KARACHI: Pakistan's seafood export to Egypt has largely come to a halt because political uncertainty continues in the key Middle Eastern country following ouster of the long-enthroned President Hosni Mubarak early this year, exporters said.

"Fairly large seafood consignments are stuck in the unrest-hit Arab republic, as exporters are struggling to clear them," said Chairman of Pakistan Fisheries Exporters Association (Pakfea), M. Faisal Iftikhar, adding that selling of the products is not taking place at present. He made it clear that unlike Egypt, the Libyan crisis, with the killing of Muammar al-Qaddafi, has had no impact on the export of aquatic products from Pakistan as the two countries do not have seafood trade.

The country's seafood export during Oct 2011 surged to $38.050 million by $23.29 percent or $7.188 million as compared to the export of fisheries products of $30.862 million ion Oct 2010, the official statistics reveal. On a monthly basis, the country's export of aquatic products mounted by 40.68 percent or $11.002 million in Oct 2011, as compared to the seafood export of $27.048 million in Sept 2011, the statistics point out. Chairman Pakfea, however, linked rise in the monthly export of seafood with the landing of raw material at the fish harbour, saying, "in some months the catch is greater in volume but in some months are really lean, therefore all it depends on the arrival of seafood to the processing units".

During July-Oct 2011 period, Pakistan's export of seafood reached $97.446 million as compared to the export of marine edibles of $83.560 million in the same period during 2010, depicting a rise of 16.62 percent or $13.886 million. In terms of volume, the country's seafood export went up to 39,297 tons during July-Oct 2011 period as compared to the export aquatic products of 34,887 tons in the same period during 2010, showing a rise of 12.64 percent or 4,410 tons, according to the statistics. On yearly basis, the seafood export rose by 15.10 percent or 1, 973 tons to 15,041 tons in Oct 2011, as compared to the fisheries products of 13, 068 tons in Oct 2010, the statistics say.

"Pakistan's seafood export is unaffected by the Euro Zone economic crisis, as the country is banned from the export to the EU markets for the last four years," Iftikhar replied. With coming the country's seafood export to a halt, he said, the exporters were not making efforts to ship them to countries like Indonesia and other fart eastern nations to offset the unpredicted financial losses the businessmen suffered in the wake of Egypt unrest which still continued at large. "Hopefully, Egypt will soon return to normality," he said.

Chairman Pakfea termed Chinese market a 'key' venue for Pakistan's seafood and a large number of exporters now had begun depending on trade with the neighbouring country. He criticise Marine Fisheries Department (MFD) for failing to lift the fisheries ban to EU and termed the department incapable to fight the case.