Pakistan will establish a 100-acre seafood processing and export zone at Korangi Fisheries Harbour Authority (KoHFA) with an estimated investment of USD 60–80 million, Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Muhammad Junaid Anwar Chaudhry announced on Saturday.
The project aims to shift Pakistan’s seafood industry from raw exports to high-value processed products, targeting Gulf, East African, and Asian markets. Chaudhry said it will connect medium-scale processors and value-added plants with global buyers through modern infrastructure, certification standards, and streamlined export logistics.
The zone will be developed under a public-private partnership or build-operate-transfer (BOT) concession model. Private investors will finance, develop, and operate the facilities, while KoHFA will retain regulatory oversight. The concession is expected to run for 20 years with possible extensions, though alternative joint development models with private exporters or manufacturers may also be considered.
Planned facilities include 20 to 25 medium-to-large seafood processing units for fish, shrimp, and cephalopods, offering value addition and export-grade packaging. The zone will also feature a cold storage and blast freezing complex with multi-temperature storage ranging from minus 18 to minus 40 degrees Celsius, and ice plants with a daily capacity of 50–100 tonnes to support fish landing, processing, and transportation.
Project costs are based on regional benchmarks from Vietnam, China, and Ecuador, countries that have successfully developed similar seafood industrial parks. Revenue will be generated through lease rentals, processing fees, cold storage and logistics services, utilities, export revenue sharing, and margins from value-added products. The internal rate of return is projected between 13 and 17 percent.
Chaudhry said the initiative aligns with Pakistan’s National Blue Economy Policy, Vision 2030, and the UN Sustainable Development Goal 14 on life below water. He emphasized that KoHFA will contribute land, jetty access, and institutional facilitation, while the private sector will fully finance and operate the project, reflecting the government’s commitment to modernizing the blue economy and strengthening Pakistan’s global seafood trade.
