Myanmar is one of the rising players in the market for fishery products. Its expertise, competitiveness and diverse natural resources are the foundations of a sector that is set to develop even further.
Myanmar aspires to become one of the major players in the fisheries sector in the coming years. Currently booming, the sector is expected to continue to expand in the coming decades due to the increasing urbanization of developing countries. In 2017, Myanmar was already the 12th largest producer in the sector and contributed about 1.6% of world production.
Main export markets
Myanmar's exports are extremely well established in East Asia. In 2018, 66% of Myanmar's exports were captured by Thailand and China alone. Other important trading partners are also present in the region such as Singapore, Japan, Malaysia and Bangladesh.
The country aims to develop its exports to the Middle East (mainly United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman), the United States, Australia and the European Union which currently represent respectively 18%, 2.8% and 0.34% of total national exports.
Main export products
Domestic exports are dominated by fresh fish products (37%), crustaceans (25%), frozen fish (17%) with a rapid increase in frozen fish exports. The most exported products are rohu (9.3%), live mud crab (6.8%), fish meal (5.3%), ribbon fish (4.9%), hilsa (4.5%), live eel (3.9%), soft shell crab (3.7%), pink shrimp (3.3%), squid (3.2%), tiger shrimp (2.8%).
A growing sector
Between 2014 and 2018, the value of domestic exports increased by 13.6% to reach $734 million USD.
Nearly 50 countries
In 2018, Myanmar was exporting its fishery products to 48 different countries.
A major product
With a production of 3.2 million tons of fish, Myanmar accounted for 1.6% of world production in 2017.
