According to Chinese customs statistics, Pakistan exported 13,866 tonnes of fish meal to China in January and February, valued at more than $15.68 million, a year-on-year increase of 250.59 percent.
Despite the COVID-19 outbreak, bilateral trade between Pakistan and China has increased significantly. Pakistan’s exports to China totaled $670.72 million in January-February 2022, up 22.77 percent from $546.30 million the previous year.
According to the General Administration of Customs of China (GACC), imports of fish flour and meals from Pakistan for use in animal feed exceeded $15.68 million with a total volume of 13,866 tonnes in January and February, up from $4.47 million with a total volume of 4,917 tonnes the previous year.
People in Pakistan bought 40,654.92 tonnes of fish meal for animal feed in 2021, which cost $40.53 million.
People in Karachi, Pakistan, are eating a lot more fish because there aren’t enough fish from other countries, says Khurram Naseeb of A-One Fish Meal.
A lot of the countries that make fish meal have put export restrictions on it. The exceptions are Pakistan and India, but not Peru. “Almost every supplier has done this,” he said.
It was because of the epidemic and the war between Russia and Ukraine that prices for other agricultural goods like soybean meal, maize, and rapeseed meal went up in January.
As a result, animal feed has a lot of fish meal in it, which is usually made from young fish.
Following the signing of the second China-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement, which allows duty-free access to China for over 313 commodities, including fisheries, he stated that Pakistan’s fishery processing industry must develop in order to boost exports. Local fishermen are still required to construct jetties.
By upgrading our boats, decreasing the time required to transfer raw fish from boats to trucks, and expediting the transportation of raw fish from the port to industries, we can increase our export and pricing, “Khurram explained. “Pakistan’s potential is greater than what they are currently achieving, at around 85,000 tonnes per year.”
