Pakistan looks to improve $465 million seafood exports with new processing zone at Korangi.

Recently, the Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs, Muhammad Junaid Anwar Chaudhry, announced that Pakistan would be opening a 100-acre seafood processing zone at the Korangi Fisheries in Karachi.

This effort would cost anywhere between USD 60 and 80 million dollars, not an inconsiderable sum, and is projected to be developed under a public-private partnership model. The government would provide institutional backing and retain regulatory oversight, while the private partners would take care of the financing, developing, and operating bit.

The main purpose of this facility would be to assist in transforming Pakistan’s seafood exports, which are currently low value products down the value chain, into high-value processed products. These would then be exported to the Gulf, East Asian, and East African markets.

This is part of a recent series of public-sector attempts to support Pakistan’s seafood export industry. While the industry has recently seen an uptick in its exports on the back of some recent developments, opening a value-addition and processing zone would be a significant step towards increasing the value of Pakistan’s seafood exports.

Yet, while it would likely be effective in pushing up the value of Pakistan’s seafood exports, on its own it might not be sufficient to turn around the fortunes of the industry. The seafood industry in Pakistan has been suffering from not only stagnant fishing stocks, but also high power costs, as well as a lack of proper infrastructure for sustainable fishing as well as export enablement.

With this recent announcement, however, there are signs that things might be changing for the better, albeit slowly. Sustainable development, as it is most of the time, would be dependent on formulating and sticking through a plan that takes into account not only the environmental sustainability of fishing practices, but also includes development of a whole publicly-supported ecosystem of infrastructure geared towards that.

Pakistan’s Seafood Industry:

Pakistan has a long coastline, over 1,000 km long, on its southern hem, with an Exclusive Economic Zone of 222,000, km².

Of the total fish production in Pakistan, the marine sector’s production (as opposed to inland fishing and aquaculture) makes up around 70 percent of the total capture and 53 percent of total fish production.

As for the species available in the marine fishing ecosystem of Pakistan, it is estimated that the waters are home to around 250 demersal fish species and 85 pelagic fish species (of which 50 are small, 15 medium, and 20 large). These species include varieties of shrimp, tuna, industrial deep-sea, small-scale demersal, and small pelagics. Moreover, 15 commercial species have been identified of shrimp, 5 of lobster, and 12 of cephalopods.

The industry has seen some positive developments recently. For instance, in 2025, it was reported that for FY 2025, Pakistan’s seafood exports amounted to 216,350 metric tonnes, worth USD 465 million. This represented an 8.3 percent increase in tonnage, and a 13.4 percent increase in value over the previous fiscal year, but still fell short of the USD 500 million target. This seafood was exported mainly to the following destinations: China, Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

By value, these exports accounted for just over 1 percent of Pakistan’s total national exports, which were worth USD 32 billion. At the same time, their contribution to Pakistan’s GDP is estimated to be 0.31% percent, again not a mind-boggling number. The point, however, is that it can be better.

One key facet of Pakistan’s seafood exports is our neighbour towards the north and northeast. China is by far the biggest destination for Pakistani seafood. In the first eleven months of 2025, seafood exports to China accounted for approximately USD 235 million, compared to around USD 189 million during the same period in 2024. This bulk was made up of frozen fish varieties like anchovies, mackerel, and squid, but the exports also included other varieties like crabs, cuttlefish, and squid.

This volume does make sense, however. First, China is by far the world’s biggest consumer of seafood by volume. In fact, according to the World Population Review, in 2022, China consumed around 59 million tonnes of seafood. India, which came second, accounted for a comparatively measly 12 million tonnes.

Then, there’s the fact that we share a border with them. And, then, perhaps the most important of all, is the fact that we have a trade partnership with them, exemplified by the CPEC initiative, which has led to infrastructural development in Pakistan, as well the streamlining of supply chains, which have placed Pakistan in a prime position to trade with one of the world’s biggest trading countries.

Pakistan’s Seafood Trade Statistics with China (2015-2023):

 Figures are trade volumes in thousands USD

Source: “Exploring FTAs, seafood exports, and SDGs: a gravity model analysis of Pakistan’s seafood trade with China and regional partners” by Yuxiang Xia, Hengbin Yin, et al.

As the table reflects, Pakistan has increased its imports to China, while importing comparatively negligible values of seafood. This is because Pakistan’ per capita consumption of seafood is very low, a mere 2 kg per capita, while the global average is around 30 kg per capita.

In any case, for seafood, Pakistan’s trade balance with China is constantly in surplus, unlike in most other sectors, where it is heavily tilted beyond the negative. And this provides Pakistan’s seafood export market with a much-needed cushion, and the need for this cushion brings us to the next section.

Pakistan’s Seafood Woes:

Now, one of the main problems besetting Pakistani seafood is quality control and lack of adherence to international fishing standards and practices. This has led Pakistani seafood to being banned from some of the biggest markets in the past.

For instance, in 2017, the United States banned the import of seafood from Pakistan because the latter failed to implement the wide-scale usage of turtle excluder devices (TEDs) in its fishing practices.

TEDs are devices that allow sea turtles and other large marine mammals that have been caught in shrimp trawling nets to escape, reducing harm to the ecosystem that normal netting practices would normally have caused. The United States mandated their use in 1987, and Pakistan’s lack of effort in this regard meant the closing of the American market. The ban was suspended in 2025. But we’ll return to it in a bit.

Similarly, the EU banned the import of Pakistani seafood in 2007 because of quality and hygiene concerns over EU-bound shipments of seafood. Saudi Arabia placed a similar ban – over hygiene and safety concerns – in 2016.

Now, making up for the loss in these markets with increased exports to China did make sense. And that’s what has happened, more or less. But there is a catch with this overreliance on the Chinese market, and that’s to do with the value of our exports.

First, the rates Pakistani seafood products find in China is much lower than they would find in Western markets. In fact, it was estimated that while currently Pakistani shrimp was being sold for about USD 2 per kilogram, with more of the international market opening – especially the United States – the rate could jump up to as high as USD 6 per kilogram. This means that for the same amount of seafood products, the money Pakistan makes would be greater, and so would be its positive effect on the country’s GDP. And, conversely, that the current state of our exports is pushing the prices down by virtue of where Pakistan’s sending them.

The other reason also has to do with price, but as it is dependent on the product, and not simply the market the product is being exported. The fact is that most of the seafood we export to China is low value, with little processing or value addition done. Then, Chinese processors induce value into those varieties of frozen fish, and export them to other countries for higher rates. The over-reliance on the Chinese market – at least how Pakistan trades with them now – then means that Pakistan is not making full use of the raw fish it produces, and is foregoing a crucial opportunity for increased revenues by foregoing the processing of seafood into higher-end items.

Other than that, it’s the usual infrastructural deficit. A lack of enough cold storage facilities means that we are currently exporting less, and making even less, than what we could even with the current catch. Saeed Farid, Senior Vice Chairman of Pakistan Seafood Export Association, was reported last year saying that “if stored at minus 60 Celsius, it [Pakistan’s yellowfin tuna] could fetch USD 20 per unit, but it earns only USD 1.5 today,” which in turn reduces Pakistan’s ability to export to nearby countries like Sri Lanka.

Similarly, the facilities we do have for processing fish into exports are suffering from expensive power expenses, as well as lack of government incentives to encourage sustainable fishing practices to not only bring us in line with international standards, but also to increase our fish production. For instance, deep sea fishery resources remain comparatively underexplored because the run-of-the-mill vessels used are unsuitable and unequipped for deep sea fishing.

And then we come to the fact that Pakistan’s fishing stocks – such as for shrimp landings –have been on the decrease. And this has meant that Pakistan’s fish production is not increasing as might have been assumed with greater access to modern technology. Rather, Pakistan’s total production of fish – including inland and aquaculture as well – has stayed more or less constant over the past decade.

In 2015-16, for example, the total fish production was 788,000 tonnes. In 2024-25, this figure was around 798,500 tonnes. There were higher peaks in the middle, but not too far off the average. While we do not know the exact portion of marine fisheries in these figures, it would be reasonable – on the basis of reports that the fishing stocks are falling because of overfishing, failure to adopt sustainable practices, and lack of adequate infrastructure to encourage those practices – to expect that the situation is not too different in the marine fisheries sector either.

Pakistan’s Seafood Exports Outlook:

With the current announced move of setting up a facility for seafood processing in Karachi, it would appear that the government is taking some steps to buttress the local seafood industry. And, this must be understood in context of the government’s previous steps towards the same step.

In fact, the reversal in 2025 of the seafood exports ban placed by the United States came at the heels of assurances as well as steps taken to ensure the quality of Pakistani fishing products. More importantly, Pakistan last year launched a PKR 90 million project to protect endangered sea turtles from getting caught in the shrimp trawling nets.

This project is supposed to include not only the free distribution and installation of TEDs, but also involve capacity building and training works for trawler crews. Moreover, it would also entail data collection to account for the devices’ impact on the efficiency of shrimp catches.

The reversal of the ban, on the surface of it, was good. But concerns were raised at the time that the varieties of fish allowed in the move to reverse the United States’ ban concerned only a few varieties that weren’t even being exported to the United States. Seafood exporters, even then, dismissed this as an undiluted prospect of great futures, and urged that long term trade with the United States would still hinge on Pakistan’s adoption of the TED devices and other protocols to meet their standards for protecting marine mammals from incidental injury and death during fishing.

So, there we have one major variable: how would Pakistan’s program to safeguard and conserve sea turtles fare. Again, one can be hopeful that some steps are being taken, and our resumed exports to the United States depend on it, but it would squarely depend on the execution of this program, and its widespread adoption by local producers.

Then, we must consider the China factor, as well. As mentioned, we have been selling most of our fish and seafood products to China, with little value addition on our part. And we have seen how this reduces the potential of our exports to bring in more money. Steps to equip the seafood industry with heavier processing capabilities – as the current proposed zone purports to do – would go quite some way in helping address this issue.

However, this is a plan, and plans might not turn out as planned. What the proposed public-private partnership to develop the processing zone looks like, is not clear. Similarly, for this to really bear fruit, it must be integrated in a broader economic mechanism – leading from the fishing to the last step of the export process. But, it’s still something, slightly encouraging, even..

Then again, it would have to be seen whether we would have enough demand for our higher-value seafood exports in China, and, in case there’s a volume decrease, would that be made up for by the increase in price of Pakistan’s seafood products, as well as the – ideally assumed – increase imports to Western economies. Again, the key measure to hedge against a possible loss in this scenario seems to be ensuring that Pakistan’s seafood is brought to a level that opens it up to other high-value markets – such as the EU – as well.

Value addition to the product, certainly, is one way to increase the overall revenue that can be generated from the total production. Even if the volume doesn’t increase, if Pakistan can access more lucrative markets, the earnings will increase. But it is questionable whether this would be – on its own – sufficient to lead to sustainable growth in Pakistan’s seafood sector.

And that leads us to our final point: infrastructural investment needs to be undertaken to materially promote fishing practices that, by following international standards of fishing, not only preserve our current marine biodiversity but which are then also instituted as part of a broader national push towards countering climate change and promoting environment-friendly practices in various economic sectors.

Otherwise, in a blind rush to catch more fish, the seafood industry would only harm itself, and find itself caught not only by its dwindling available stocks, but also lose access to markets which it needs to take the next step for its growth.