KARACHI: Pakistan has submitted applications for 24 seafood exporters to Saudi Arabia’s food regulator, a senior fisheries official said this week, as the country seeks to increase sales to the Kingdom and reduce its reliance on China.

Saudi Arabia requires foreign seafood establishments to be approved before they can export fish and related products to the Kingdom. Pakistan currently sells about $15 million of seafood to Saudi Arabia each year, compared with around $100 million to the wider Middle East, according to the official.

China buys about 60 percent of Pakistan’s seafood exports.

Mansoor Ali Wassan, director general of Pakistan’s Marine Fisheries Department, said gaining wider access to the Saudi market could help exporters sell more higher-value seafood close to home.

“We have already submitted dossiers for 24 companies there,” Wassan told Arab News in an interview on Thursday.

An official document seen by Arab News listed the applications as pending with the Saudi Food and Drug Authority. The companies named in the document included Blue & White Fisheries, Arsula Seafoods, Sindh Balochistan Coastal Company, Maritime Seafood, Legend International Private Ltd, Ocean Gold Seafood, Hussain and Sons Enterprises, ORB Exim Corporation Private Ltd, Al Noor International, Supreme Seafood Enterprises, Sam Fish Trading, Mukhi Noor Din & Sons, Hei5 International Food Pakistan, A.G Fisheries Private Limited and Falcon Fisheries (Pvt) Ltd.

A Saudi Food and Drug Authority list dated October 2025 already identified 11 Pakistani seafood establishments approved to export to the Kingdom. Wassan did not say when the 24 applications were submitted, whether they included firms already on that list or how many had since been approved.

The Saudi press attaché said he would seek a response to Arab News’ questions about the applications. No further response had been received by publication.

Wassan said the Middle East conflict had disrupted some Pakistani seafood exports to Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait. Sales to Saudi Arabia had increased, he said, but remained limited by the number of companies able to serve the market.

“If more of our companies get enlisted in Saudi Arabia, then we can supply our fresh and premium seafood there,” he said.

Pakistan’s challenge is also what it sells.

Wassan said most exporters ship seafood after basic packing, while only three of the country’s 578 exporters currently make products with further processing, such as ready-to-eat food. He said exporters were seeking tax relief and lower duties on imported processing machinery.

“We need to switch from packers to value-addition producers,” he said.

Wassan estimated that, with substantially more processing, Pakistan could raise its annual seafood exports to the Middle East to $1 billion within five years. The region currently accounts for about $100 million, by his estimate.

The maritime ministry has put Pakistan’s seafood exports in the fiscal year ended June 2026 at a record $568 million. Final trade figures from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics put them at about $482 million, a discrepancy that makes the ministry’s export forecasts difficult to assess against a settled baseline.