Sabah is the
major contributor to Malaysian fishery industry and one of the best fish
producers in Asia. The products are exported to Asian countries like Singapore,
Hong Kong, Taiwan and China.
Sabah is
rich in diversity of fish species, however, the price paid in fresh seafood restaurants are rather
expensive.
In order to attract more local and international tourists, delicious seafood dishes at reasonable price should be the long-term strategy.
Sabah
has the longest coastline of approximately 1600 km, which is extending from the
border of Sarawak in the Southwest to Indonesia in the Southeast.
Borders
the South China Sea on its west coast, the Sulu Sea on its north east coast and
the Celebes Sea on its Southeast coast, the total territorial waters of Sabah
covers 55,828 km.
Owing to its
geographical location which is surrounded by seas, Sabah has a gifted a great
potential in fishery products. The coastal zones are rich
in diversity of fish species.
Sabah
fisheries commodities of export and imports consist of live fish, live crab,
fresh, chilled and frozen fish, crabs and shrimp, fishmeal, fish fillets, and
dried, salted or in brine fish products. Major export trading partners are
Japan, Hong Kong, Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore and USA.
Sabah has a total of 20,000 fishermen and 8,500
fishing boats. The local fisheries produced 180,000
metric tons (MT) valued at RM590 million in 1997.
In 1996,
overall fish production was 1,126,689 tonnes valued at RM3.3 billion. From this
994,144 tonnes were from coastal fisheries, 132,545 tonnes from deep sea
fishing and 109,462 tonnes contributed by the aquaculture sub-sector.
The value of
the 1996 fish production made up about 2.3% of the national GDP or some 3.5% of
the agriculture GDP. In terms of labor
employment, there were 79,616 fishermen active in the sector.
In 1997 export market, frozen
crustaceans leads the export value with a total of RM145, 763,435 million worth
of frozen shrimps, lobsters and crabs. This is followed second by export of
fresh, chilled, frozen and dried molluscs (squid, cuttlefish and octopus) worth
RM21, 161,784 million and third in place was the export of frozen fish worth
RM21, 154,522.
In 1997, Japan topped the list by
importing a total of 4,878.16 metric tonnes of fisheries commodities amounting
to RM87, 145,017 million followed by Peninsular Malaysia, Hong Kong and Italy. The
export figures have shown a rising trend.
