Record breaking year for the Sri Lankan fisheries sector – Kanchana Wijesekera

by Priyan De Silva

State Minister of Ornamental fish, inland fish and prawn farming, fishery harbour development, multiday fishing activities and fish exports Kanchana Wijesekera says 2021 saw quite a number of challenges, but was a record setting year for the Sri Lankan fisheries sector.

The challenges faced by the industry were the Peliyagoda COVID cluster, the domestic and overseas lockdowns due to the pandemic, the increase in freight costs, the X-press Pearl maritime disaster and the floods in the Puttalam district, he says.

Nevertheless, due to the good fortune of the fisher folk and the cooperation between the stakeholders and officials of the fisheries sector the new records were set in 2021.

The revenue from the export of fish and fishery products reached an all-time high of USD 318 million, the highest export revenue in the history of the fisheries industry. In 2020, it was USD 215 million.

The positive balance of the fish trade in 2021 was USD 192 million the highest surplus the industry has ever gained. It was USD 23 million in 2020.

The value of imports (USD 126 million) and quantity of goods imported (56,176 MT) were the lowest in over a decade, In 2020, USD 191 million was spent on imports while the volume of imports was 85,809 MT.

Production from shrimp farming was almost double the previous high of 14,415 MT and the export value saw a 162% increase. Revenue from the export of ornamental fish saw a 74% increase from USD 21 million recorded in 2020.

The production of canned fish locally at the rate of 90,000 cans per day in January 2021 increased to 220,000 cans per day in December 2021. The annual domestic requirement of canned fish is about 275,000 cans per day. With the increase in the local production, there was a 76.2% decrease compared to the 36.806 MT imported in 2019.

Only 8758 MT of canned fish was imported in 2021.