The EU-specified fishing boat modification programme of Rs 555 million has delayed for one year, rising fears the Europe Union ban on Pakistani seafood export is likely to continue because of the poor government preparations, sources in the fisheries sector said on Tuesday.
However, an official of Karachi Fish Harbour Authority (KFHA) said the authority had sought an extension in the programme for one-year till June 30, 2012, although the boat modification process had to complete by June 30, 2011. He said the boat owners were reluctant to hand over their boats for modification despite the authority repeated requests. "The unavailability of boats caused delay in the modification programme for one-year," he said.
He said the funds would not lapse and the government had not allocated fresh fund in the next fiscal budget for the programme. He hoped the authority would meet the target of producing 500 all-sized boats by June next year. "With the start of off-season of fishing in Karachi due to rough sea, the boat owners approached the authority to hand over their boats for modification and work on 200 vessels has been started," he said, adding there were about 10 different boats modifying companies engaged in the process.
To a question, he said the authority had already modified about 250 all-sized boats. He said the authority also carried out yearly inspection and renovation of the already modified boats. The official ruled out the delay in the modification process would cause any interruption in the seafood trade resumption with EU, saying there had been sufficient modified boats to satisfy the union's inspectors.
He said the authority had received no complaints from any owner about the modification of boats. He acknowledged the government had stopped funds for the boat modification process for six months last year because of the devastating floods. "The non-availability of funds also caused delay in the programme completion," he said.
The boat owners had showed their concerns over delay in funds release by the government, which according to them, had halted the modification process of their moored boats, causing them million of rupees losses. The EU had laid down its hygienic standards in 2007, asking Pakistan to modify fishing vessels and renovate auction hall while exporters were told to overhaul their seafood processing units if wanted to export seafood to Europe.
The boat modifiers had also expressed their concerns over the delay in release of allocated funds, which they said, had badly affected their work. KFHA had chalked out a plan in year 2000 under Commodore Naqvi to revamp fishing boats in line with the global fishing standards, which until 2007 could not become possible for political reasons, sources said.
The EU ban in 2007 compelled the government to rebuild the fisheries sector and take steps to revamp fishing vessels, auction halls, harbour infrastructure, besides pressurising the seafood processors to improve their units' standards. According to an estimate, the country loses at least $50 million of seafood exports every year due to the EU ban. The ban came in April 2007 by delisting 11 exporting seafood processing plants and the ban is still intact because as the local concerned authorities have not yet fully addressed the EU objections and concerns.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.