It has been decided during meetings to develop a portion of the fish harbour in accordance with the standard of EU's commodity standard requirement.
Besides, it had also been decided to upgrade 40 fishing boats, ensuring hygienic conditions in these boats to meet safety requirement of the EU.
Sources said the government has taken the suggestion of the EU mission seriously to avoid any ban on the exports of seafood to the EU.
The mission did not say anything about a ban explicitly, but their concern to improve the conditions at fish harbour indicates towards bringing improvement in the fish harbour and if appropriate steps were not taken, it might lead to a ban, the sources added.
The years' negligence has deteriorated the conditions at the fish harbour and of the boats, which are below the safety standard of the EU. However, the mission expressed its satisfaction over processing plants.
The sources said that a meeting held couple of days back in Islamabad pondered over the situation in detail, and decided to go ahead with the plan to improve the overall condition of the fish harbour.
About the cost of the project, the sources said that an amount, ranging between Rs 10 million and Rs 20 million, would be required for the development of exclusive portion for the EU seafood exports, while around rupees eight million would be needed for upgradation of 40 boats, they said.
However, the immediate start of the work on the plan is not in sight in near future, as the government is still wandering as who will finance this plan. Initially, the Federal government had given its consent to finance this plan, but later, the provincial government agreed to put money in it, but now it has backtracked.
Now the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (Smeda) is being asked to invest in it.
A leading seafood exporter, commenting on the situation, said that if the decision on financing on the project were delayed, it would be having adverse consequences on the seafood exports.
"Only 10 days are required to complete this plan if financing is arranged immediately, he added.
He suggested that this project could also be undertaken through the Export Development Fund (EPB) of the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), as millions of fund was contributed by the seafood exporters.
The sources said a high level meeting, attended by high officials of the Sindh government and the EPB remained inconclusive and no decision on financial arrangement of this project was made.
The sources said the EPB officials' response was not encouraging, despite the fact that the department is supposed to promote the exports and help the exporters by upgrading export-related facilities.
During 2003-04, Pakistan exported 101,256 tonnes of total fish products, earning a foreign exchange of 156 million dollar, of which 52 million dollar were fetched by export to the EU market.