Pakistan's seafood exports to China topped $166.56 million, an increase of 41% in the month of January-October year-on-year, while last year it was $118.07 million, China Economic Net (CEN) reported on Tuesday quoting the General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China (GACC). GACC’s data shows that in the first ten months this year, Pakistan’s exports of frozen fish, commodity code (03038990), to China, crossed $45.47 million, which were $21.80 million during the same period last year. In terms of volume, in January-October more than 22331.728 tons of frozen fish were exported to China whereas last year during the same period it was 13084.984 tons.

Data shows that in January-October this year exports of fresh & chilled crabs, commodity code (03063399), to China touched $22.46 million. However last year in the same period they were $17.14 million, an increase of 31%. In terms of quantity, in the first ten months of this year it was 3174.391 tons and last year in the same duration it was 2445.136 tons, an increase of nearly 30%. Conferring to the data, in January-October this year, exports of molluscs and shellfish, commodity code (16055900), to China, crossed $19.77 million, whereas they were just $1.89 million during the same period last year.

Ghulam Qadir, Commercial Counsellor, Pakistani Embassy in Beijing, told CEN that China-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement helped many Pakistani products enter the Chinese market, and Pakistan's seafood exports to China are increasing day-by-day due to this agreement. "Now many Pakistani seafood exporters enjoy zero-traffic duty on seafood items while they are getting more awareness about China-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement. Recently, we registered new species under the 2nd phase of CPFTA which helped increase exports to China and we are negotiating with GACC to add more species to our seafood export list under CPFTA," he added.

Qadir further said that many Pakistani seafood exporters want to increase collaboration with Chinese partners to enhance exports by using China’s latest technologies, techniques, and best practices in this field. He said that the Marine Fisheries Department (MFD) in Sindh and GACC are closely cooperating to enhance seafood exports to China by adding new species under zero-tariff rate.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-INP