Daily Times

The outbreak of the pandemic has been disrupting the trade of aquatic products globally, including that between Pakistan and China.

According to China Economic Net, out of Pakistan’s total fishery exports, 60 per cent are destined for China. “Since the outbreak of the pandemic, our export to China declined”, shared a fisherman from the Karachi Port.

In an exclusive with Genho Food Company, an importer of Pakistani seafood, Manager Yu said, “we imported octopus, processed them into takoyaki, and sold them to Japan. The import value peaked in 2018, but in 2020, we imported only two containers of octopus”.

Since the beginning of this year, nine out of the top fifteen companies exporting fish to China have faced or have been facing a temporary ban since January after detection of corona virus in their shipments.

According to Chinese customs, in September alone, frozen food from Pakistan has been tested positive for four times.

“In the post-pandemic era, digital means provide a possibility for the badly-hit aquatic sector to revive”, this is an idea shared by Zhang Ye, Vice President of Tencent Cloud in the 2021 Global Forum on Sustainable Fisheries Development held in Qingdao, Shandong Province in eastern China.

For this purpose, a brand new digital platform “CFSE Global Marketplace” has been launched by China Fisheries & Seafood Expo (CFSE) in partner with Tencent, a tech giant and parent company of WeChat, to bring global exhibitors and visitors together online, including Pakistani participants.

The forum is the first large-scale global forum in the aquatic and fishery sectors since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, signaling an upward trend of the global fishery and aquatic industries.

“Globally, the outlook is cloudy in the short term; but in the long run, demand for seafood will increase”, shared Peter Redmay, President of Sea Fare Expositions on the forum.

Aquatic products provide about 17% animal protein to the global population.

FAO statistics show that the global average annual consumption of fishery products has reached a record of 20.5 kilograms per person, up from 9.0 kilograms in 1962, and this figure is expected to increase to 21.5 kilograms in the next decade. In particular, the availability of aquaculture products has been on the rise.

According to TRTA Pakistan, more than 0.8 million people in the country rely directly or indirectly on the industry for their livelihood.

“Without the sustainability in the fishery sector, it would be impossible to realize agricultural sustainability and security.”

“Among the lessons learned from Covid-19 pandemic for aquatic food, seven stand out”, analysed Yuan Xinhua, Senior Aquaculture Officer of FAO, “an ever-ready social safety net should be built; supply chain resilience should be strengthened through increased diversity, flexibility, and modularity; excessive de-globalisation should be avoided, scientific research should be funded and trusted in; behavioral and political barriers to progress should be removed; underlying causes should be treated not just the symptoms; and high-frequency monitoring should be emphasised”.

Looking forward, he anticipates a food system transformation that unleashes the full potential of aquaculture and is adapted to pandemic scenarios, improved aquaculture resilience by preparing for emergencies in advance, appropriate government relief and social support, augmented R&D in fish farming methods, fish feed, and new variaties, digitalization and automation, and enhanced cooperation and partnership.

In particular, digital technology is a means that can be applied throughout the industrial chain and bring benefit to all.

From fish farm and staff health monitoring, marketing and expansion of customer base, non-contact delivery, to government subsidy distribution, it can have a greater role to play.