The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is promoting trout fish farming in the high-altitude Malakand and Hazara divisions to ensure a sustainable livelihood source for locals, but absence of processing units and value addition mars its exports.

Talking to WealthPK about the importance of promoting trout fish farming in KP, the province’s director of fisheries department Zubair Ali said, “Trout is one of the most in-demand fish in the country and abroad.”

He said the KP government was providing a 50% subsidy on establishing trout farms in the two regions. He said the commonly found varieties of trout fish in KP were brown trout, rainbow trout (95% of trout fish farms are of rainbow trout because of their best growth in hatchery or control conditions); golden rainbow trout (it is recently introduced to cold water fisheries aquaculture of KP); and sparctic trout fish (recently introduced to Swat trout aquaculture systems from Italy as it is a good competitor of other trout varieties already in the market for its good quality).

“The provincial government has established trout hatcheries in Mansehra, Swat, Shangla, Kohistan, Dir, Chitral and Battagram districts,” he said, adding that it was also important to launch quality trout processing units in the region to export trout in multiple forms for greater socioeconomic benefit of the people and the country. He said setting up trout processing units in the region would not only boost the fisheries sector in the province but also create job opportunities.

He said that these farms suffered extensive damage during the August 2022 floods. He also noted that the ever-rising cost of inputs such as feed was also worrisome for farmers.

Zubair Ali said water pollution due to extensive use of fertilisers, pesticides in fields, and discharge of municipal sewage was affecting not only fish population in rivers but also causing mortality at farms. 
He said as its demand was ever increasing worldwide, Pakistan could export rainbow trout in large quantities by focusing on its growth, processing and value addition into a variety of products.  

Global consumption of rainbow trout is projected to reach $7 billion at a compound annual growth rate of 5.2% from 2023 to 2033.