Coordinator to the Federal Tax Ombudsman Saif ur Rehman on Sunday said Pakistan could earn nearly $5 billion in foreign exchange annually by exporting seafood through locally owned, modern vessels that meet international standards instead of relying on foreign shipping companies.
Local shipping, seafood processing can boost forex earnings by $5bn : FTO coordinator
LAHORE, Jul 26 (APP):Coordinator to the Federal Tax Ombudsman Saif ur Rehman on Sunday said Pakistan could earn nearly $5 billion in foreign exchange annually by exporting seafood through locally owned, modern vessels that meet international standards instead of relying on foreign shipping companies.
Talking to a delegation of exporters led by Amna Abdullah Chaudhry, he said Pakistan continues to export tuna and other seafood mainly in raw or semi-processed form, allowing importing countries to undertake processing, branding, and packaging before selling the products in premium international markets at much higher prices.
He said countries including those in the Gulf region, Thailand, and Vietnam import seafood from Pakistan, process it under their own brands and capture the higher profit margins in global markets. “Pakistan must move up the value chain instead of remaining a supplier of raw products”, he added.
Saif ur Rehman warned that without structural reforms, Pakistan would continue exporting low-value marine products, while importing high-value processed goods and paying billions of dollars annually to foreign shipping companies, thereby missing an opportunity to transform its maritime resources into a sustainable source of export growth, industrial diversification and foreign exchange earnings.
He said Pakistan relies overwhelmingly on foreign vessels for its international trade, with nearly 95 per cent of the country’s seaborne trade carried by foreign shipping companies, resulting in an annual freight bill of around $5 billion and placing a persistent burden on the country’s foreign exchange reserves.
The coordinator said the global seafood market was worth hundreds of billions of dollars annually, with processed seafood contributing a significantly larger share of export earnings than raw fish. He called for developing Pakistan’s shipping industry by assembling modern vessels locally through active private-sector participation supported by a comprehensive package of incentives.
