There is a number that quietly challenges every planning meeting in Islamabad. Pakistan’s fisheries sector currently operates at one-quarter of its productive potential. One quarter. This is not the finding of a foreign consultancy or an opposition manifesto. It is the published assessment of our own Ministry of Maritime Affairs (MoMA) in its 2022–23 yearbook. Meanwhile, the global blue economy is valued at USD 24 trillion by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the World Bank now devotes over USD 10 billion annually to helping other countries capture their share of it.

We are not in that conversation, not because we lack the ocean. We lack the people to work it.

Pakistan’s coastline runs for 1,001 kilometres. Our Exclusive Economic Zone covers 240,000 square kilometres of sea. Balochistan alone, where 76% of our coastline lies, could yield 300,000 tonnes of fish annually and generate USD 645 million in exports if modern processing capacity and a trained workforce were in place. Today, about 34 seafood processing units operate in the province, most requiring urgent upgrades to meet international food safety standards.

Gwadar, the centrepiece of CPEC 2.0, has been declared capable of generating over USD 850 million annually in maritime exports. China Overseas Port Holding Company has already partnered with a Chinese aquaculture firm for deep-sea fish farming near the port, backed by USD 125 million in seafood exports to China in 2024. The port, the fish, the Chinese........

© The Nation