ISLAMABAD:
Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Muhammad Junaid Anwar Chaudhry has introduced plans to ascertain a 100-acre, $80 million Seafood Processing and Export Zone on the Korangi Fisheries Harbour Authority (KoFHA), aimed toward boosting the blue economic system and world seafood commerce.
In an announcement on Saturday, the minister stated the proposed venture was aimed toward creating, financing and working a contemporary seafood processing and worth addition advanced underneath KoFHA, positioning the harbour as a regional hub for sustainable, technology-driven seafood processing linked to high-value worldwide markets.
He stated the initiative could be a bridge between medium-scale seafood processors and value-added vegetation, and world consumers by offering trendy infrastructure, certification requirements and environment friendly export logistics. The venture displays the federal government’s intent to maneuver away from uncooked seafood exports in the direction of higher-value processed merchandise.
The minister famous that the venture would cowl 100 acres of devoted seafood processing and export infrastructure on the Korangi Fisheries Harbour in Karachi. He stated the estimated venture value would vary between $60 million and $80 million, based mostly on regional and world benchmarks from nations equivalent to Vietnam, China and Ecuador, which have developed related seafood parks.
He stated the deliberate services would come with multi-tenant seafood processing items, large-scale chilly storage and packaging services, logistics and export terminals and a wastewater therapy plant to make sure environmentally compliant operations. The zone might be used completely for business seafood processing, packaging, chilly storage and export-oriented actions.
The maritime minister stated the venture was proposed underneath a public-private partnership or build-operate-transfer (BOT) concession mannequin, underneath which non-public traders would develop, function and preserve the processing zone, whereas KoFHA would maintain regulatory oversight and supply facilitation.
Elaborating on the event elements, he stated the zone would host between 20 and 25 medium to large-scale seafood processing items designed for fish and shrimp processing, worth addition and export-grade packaging. The items will help a variety of merchandise from major processing to ready-for-market seafood gadgets.
He stated the venture would come with a chilly storage and blast freezing advanced with multi-temperature storage starting from minus 18 to minus 40 levels Celsius, permitting secure dealing with of recent, processed and unprocessed seafood. Ice vegetation and flake ice stations with a each day capability of fifty to 100 tons will help fish touchdown, processing and transportation wants.
The minister stated devoted worth addition and ready-to-eat items could be established for filleting, marinated merchandise, breaded seafood and export-oriented comfort meals, enabling Pakistani exporters to faucet premium retail and meals service markets overseas.
