Transforming Fisheries: A Strategy to Bridge Pakistan’s Trade Gap

In the past, due to over fishing, it seems that 80% of our fish stock from our marine resources has already been lost. For our food security and overcoming the big gap of trade deficit, we need to concentrate on the promotion of aquaculture, aquafarming, fish farming and deep sea fishing. The 70% of the basic food of Asian are aquatic food / fishes/ sea food. Also Asia dominates global aquaculture and deep sea fishing.

Pakistan fisheries sector holds significant potential for economic growth, food security and livelihood support. We need compliance of strong international regulations for aquaculture transformation and its sustainability otherwise we will lose the trade of fisheries and aquaculture products. The global trends, sustainability and regulatory challenges in fisheries and aquaculture require an extensive value chain with easy market access and trade professionalism.

The year on year widening of Pakistan’s trade deficit is not merely alarming, it is a clear reminder of the growing structural imbalances within the country’s economy. During fiscal year 2025 to 2026, the trade deficit expanded by 21.57 percent, reaching USD 39.471 billion, compared to USD 34.76 billion in the previous fiscal year.

Indeed, Pakistan is working very hard to achieve the targets of International trade and explore its exports but unfortunately we still have trade deficits. In order to compensate and reduce those big gaps we have to consider the export of deep sea fishes, produce from aquaculture, etc in huge. This will help in cutting down the trade gap from USD 5 billion to USD 15 billion. Moreover, the deep sea fishing with raw catch needs value addition for extra ordinary results as the demand is in tons.

For transforming resources into opportunities at the fishing sector, we need potential investment in fish processing plants, laboratory facilities, ice tunnel / ice factory, hatchery development, investment in deep sea fishing, skill development and overall investment in fisheries and aqua culture.