Pakistan may resume seafood exports to EU

ANWAR KHAN

KARACHI: Pakistan is near resuming its seafood export to the European Union, banned since 2007, as negotiations with the union have entered the final stage close to lifting the ban, fisheries officials said on Sunday.

The 27-country bloc had banned Pakistan's seafood exports since April 2007 for failing to meet its specifications regarding traceability and cold-chain maintenance.

The country incurs an annual loss of at least $50 million, the officials said.

Sources close to the negotiators told Business Recorder that the Marine Fisheries Department (MFD) had selected two seafood firms certified by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (Unido) for EU export.

Initially, the two companies - Akhlaq Enterprises and AG Fisheries - have been cleared for seafood export and a dossier had been forwarded by the MFD to the EU for approval, the officials said.

Once these companies resume export, the MFD would also make efforts to get other companies cleared by the EU, they said. "The selected companies have been cleared after they ensured EU specifications," the officials said.

They said that the MFD was also working for ensuring that by firms interested in exporting seafood to the EU countries followed EU's quality standards. "Other companies are also lining up to clear the process," the sources claimed.

Expressing the hope for quick resumption of seafood trade with the EU, the head of the Akhlaq Enterprises, Akhlaq Hussain Abedi, confirmed that his company had been one of the two chosen for the EU export.

Appreciating the MFD for taking up the issue seriously and making efforts to get the ban lifted. "The MFD has worked hard in this regard," he added.

He, however, doubted that there was any quick fix for lifting the five-year-old EU ban, saing: "Political entanglements are delaying the ban's lifting."

He said the lifting of the ban was on the EU's agenda and the MFD had already handed dossiers to the union's officials, guaranteeing that the selected companies were ensuring EU specifications.

According to the MFD, the ban on seafood exports to EU, especially shrimps, has so far inflicted a loss amounting to $250 million. Pakistan's share in EU markets was 26 percent of its total global seafood export in 2007.

Pakistan suffered a loss of $28.695 million during 2004-05 when the EU imposed a temporary ban on the country's seafood export, with a clear warning to improve the key hygienic conditions. This was the first ever ban imposed on the country's exports.

The country's seafood export jumped to $50.059 million a year after the EU lifted its ban in 2005-06. The total seafood export during that year touched $194 million. Till the EU ban in April 2007, Pakistan's seafood export had reached $31.666 million. 

Despite the EU ban, Pakistan succeeded in exporting seafood worth $259.342 million during the first 10 months of the current fiscal year (2011-12).