NEED STRESSED FOR IMPROVING FISHERIES MANAGEMENT

RECORDER REPORT, May 22, 2005

Secretary, Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (Minfal), Ismail
Querashi, said here on Saturday that the country could export $ 2 billion
worth fisheries product through better management of fisheries resources
and development of aquacutlure. "At present, Pakistan exports on average $
150 million worth of seafood, which is far below the actual potential of
the country in this sector," he said at a two-day training workshop on
'Improvement of Quality and Practices in Fisheries Sector', held by the
United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (Unido).

He said that Pakistan's fisheries sector faces many challenges and, to
remain competitive in international market requirements and to contribute
to the development of a successful economy, these shortcomings and
loopholes in management of fisheries resources and the supply chain would
have to be overcome.

He termed inadequate management operations and regulatory functions as
major threat to a possible denial of market, and held that safe production
of seafood was a mandatory requirement for both local and international
market access, including the European Union (EU).

The Minfal Secretary said that supply of safe seafood is an issue, which
attracts attention from different quarters and therefore it is essential
that seafood industry and the government quickly should address the issues
at hand to protect the future of this sector.

Describing seafood as highly perishable product, he said that its quality
deteriorates rapidly if not handled and chilled properly. However, he
deplored that much of the seafood landed at fish landing centres or
harbours in Pakistan is subjected to fairly rough handling, from the time
of catching to the consumer or the processing plants.

For sustainable harvesting and controlling post-harvest losses, Querashi
suggested protecting and conserving this resource by means of latest
knowledge and techniques. "We must learn to produce, process and pack
efficiently, to meet the challenging demand of international market", he
added.

He called for conducting the trade in fish and fishery in accordance with
the principles, rights and obligations of WTO and other relevant
international agreements.

"We should ensure that our policies, programmes and practices relating to
the trade of fish and fishery products do not result in obstacles in the
trade but enhance our exports in competitive international market," he
asserted.

The Secretary pointed out that withdrawal from the EU is an immediate
concern until an action plan to ensure seafood safety for target supply
chain is fully implemented for sustainable growth of this sector.

Commending Unido for organising the training workshop, he said that it
would provide an opportunity to examine current legislation and the
approach EU adopts while conducting assessment and inspection. It would
also facilitate the government to have a clear action plan to re-enter the
EU market and verify effective control.

He urged the participants to come up with a joint action plan in the light
of the two-day proceedings of the workshop so that joint efforts could be
carried out to adopt national and international standards of trade to
enhance exports in the competitive international market.

The opening session was followed by technical sessions, in which Unido
experts gave presentations on different aspects of fisheries exports.