International Journal of Marine Science 2015, Vol.5, No.18, 1-7
1
Research Report Open Access
Contribution of Fish Production and Trade to the Economy of Pakistan
Muhammad Mohsin, Mu Yongtong , Khadim Hussain, Aamir Mahmood, Sun Zhaoqun, Kiran Nazir, Wang Wei
College of Fisheries, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, P.R. China
Corresponding author email
International Journal of Marine Science, 2015, Vol.5, No.18 doi: 10.5376/ijms.2015.05.0018
Received: 20 Jan., 2015
Accepted: 27 Feb., 2015
Published: 19 Mar., 2015
Copyright
©
2015
Mohsin et al., This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted
use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article:
Mohsin et al., 2015, Contribution of Fish Production and Trade to the Economy of Pakistan, International Journal of Marine Science, Vol.5, No.18 1
-
7 (doi:
Abstract
Pakistani waters are rich in a variety of aquatic organisms. Of those organisms, fish has earned its importance due to its
immense export and revenue potential. In fact, exports and imports of a country serve as an indicator of its economic standing. There
are two schools of thoughts for boosting a country’s economy. One is export led growth (ELG) and the other import led growth (ILG).
The objective of this study was to investigate trend of fish production, export and import of Pakistan during the last two decades.
Extensive review of literature was done; numerical data was obtained from FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department. Minitab 17
Software was used to make graphs for meaningful data representation. The results show that fish production has increased in Pakistan
during the last two decades starting from 22,255 tons in 1991 and reaching up to 82,448 tons in 2010. During this period highest
production, 93,820 tons, was observed in 1994. Both the fish commodities, dried, salted or smoked and frozen excluding fillets and
meat, also have increased in their production; however the production of latter commodity surpassed during the last five years of our
study. Export in terms of quantity and value of the former fish commodity declined while the latter commodity increased during the
same period. Import figures have shown that there is an increasing trend in the import of the latter fish commodity reflecting its
potential demand in Pakistan. This study has highlighted the contribution of fisheries production and trade to Pakistan’s economy. By
paying more attention to fisheries sector, the country’s production and export of fish and fishery products can be increased, and the
country’s economy as a whole can be boosted.
Keywords
Fish commodity; Economy; Import; Export; Trade flow; Pakistan
Introduction
In contrast to the past, agriculture has become an
integral part of any country’s policy for economic
development (Bruinsma, 2003). Among various
agricultural products fish is the most valuable
commodity. There is an increasing trend in its
international trade. It is very interesting that, annual
sales of this commodity are around 80 billion USD
and this value is increasing each year (FAO, 2006a).
In developing countries, fish exports are an important
source of foreign revenue. Not only fisheries
contribute to national income but also help to
eliminate poverty by offering more employment
opportunities (FAO, 2006b).
It has been observed that there is rapid growth in
fisheries sector employment particularly in Asia
where majority, more than 80 percent, of the world’s
fisher folk live (FAO, 1998). This trend is obviously
due to the fact that fish including its products serve
as food and also over a billion humans thrive on it
to get their animal protein.
Fisheries play an important role in the economy of
Pakistan by employing 400,000 people directly and
another 600,000 in the ancillary industries (Ebrahim,
2014). With a coast line of 1046 km (Pernetta, 1993)
Pakistani marine as well as inland waters hold a large
variety of aquatic animals. This aquatic diversity
includes various species of fish, crustacea and
molluscs. It is noted that a number of different types
of aquatic animals are found along side of Makran
coast (Gondal et al., 2012). Marine fisheries sector in
Pakistan fisheries plays a vital role in national
economy by adding value to the agricultural sector.
The GDP contribution of agricultural sector of
Pakistan was 17300 million USD in 2006 and while
fisheries GDP contribution was 232.5 million USD.
Among marine and inland sectors, the former is the
main sector contributing nearly 60 % of the total fish
production. Deep water fish capture in Pakistan from
exclusive economic zone (EEZ) contributed 1.3 % to
total marine capture (FAO, 2009).
