Federal panel sets 120-day deadline for shrimp farming roadmap

A sub-committee constituted by the prime minister has set a 120-day deadline for a roadmap to expand shrimp farming, improve value addition and increase exports, the Express Tribune reported, citing a statement issued on Tuesday.

The sub-committee on Aquaculture and Shrimp Value Chain met under Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Muhammad Junaid Anwar Chaudhry, with provincial fisheries officials and federal institutions attending. The exercise is to run inside a 24-month implementation and review process, with the first meeting setting the structure and the next one checking progress.

According to the statement, the committee will base its report on verified data and stakeholder recommendations, establishing a baseline for the sector, identifying bottlenecks along the value chain and proposing ways to improve production, processing and export competitiveness.

The meeting approved seven technical working groups and a projection and costing cell, which together will prepare 14 reports and export projections. Responsibilities were assigned to named institutions, and a common framework was adopted for collecting and validating data, ranking challenges, drafting reforms and monitoring progress. A separate 14-day action plan was also approved, with institutions told to finish their assigned tasks on schedule.

Representatives of the fisheries departments of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan attended, along with the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan and the ministries of National Food Security and Research and Maritime Affairs.

Chaudhry said the exercise was meant to identify constraints and produce practical solutions for expanding shrimp farming, strengthening value addition and raising exports, and that the federal government would work with the provinces and other stakeholders to pool expertise and build a coordinated approach.

Punjab Secretary for Aquaculture and Fisheries Rana Muhammad Saleem Afzal said his province was working to expand shrimp farming but that building an effective value chain remained a major challenge, and that efforts were under way to set up hatcheries. Sindh's secretary for livestock and fisheries said a feasibility study was being prepared for a 3,500-acre shrimp farm in the province, and pointed to difficulties in value addition and traceability that needed to be addressed.

Other participants presented proposals on shrimp processing, value addition and export competitiveness.

The minister said the next meeting would review progress on nominations and baseline data collection, the consolidated baseline for farmed shrimp and the bottlenecks identified so far.