The most important seafood and fisheries fair in the Republic of Korea was held from November 3 to 5 at the Busan Exhibition and Convention Center (BEXCO).

Bangladesh has been participating in the expo for the last few years and promoting its seafood and fisheries to the Korean people.

This year's fair was an ideal opportunity to promote Bangladeshi fish and seafood to importers of various countries, including Korea.

The event was jointly organised by Busan Metropolitan City, BEXCO, National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives and Korea Fishery Trade Association.

This year, organisations from 14 countries, including the hosts, participated in this EXPO and displayed their frozen, chilled, fish meat, salted, processed seaweed, and seafood items through 551 booths.

On November 3, Busan City Deputy Mayor Kim Yoon Ill along with other dignitaries, organisers and guests inaugurated the expo and visited the stalls.

During the three-day event, Bangladesh Embassy officials disseminated information on the country's fisheries sector, which offers hilsa, rohu, pangas, tilapia, black tiger shrimp, freshwater prawn, pink shrimp, brown shrimp, mud crab, eels, cuttlefish, squid, mackerel, Chinese pomfret, silver pomfret, sardine, leather jack, ribbon, skipjack tuna, and halibut for export.

They distributed brochures and leaflets from organisations and agencies involved in the country's fisheries sector, which has grown remarkably over two decades. Bangladesh’s yearly fish output increased to 4.4 million tons in 2020, from 1.8 million tons in 2000 - an almost two-and-a-half fold increase.

According to the UN Food and Agricultural Organization, or FAO's latest flagship report – The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2020 - with over 1.2 million tons of fish captured from inland water, Bangladesh now contributes a tenth of the world’s total inland water-captured fish production, ranking third behind China and India.

Naturally, the industry is keen to increase exports, now that it consistently produces a surplus over national demand.

Around 100 Koreans and people of other countries visited the Bangladesh pavilion daily during the expo and showed keen interest in buying the fish products and knowing the marketing formalities of Bangladesh.

Namely, they were interested in pangas, tilapia, black tiger shrimp, freshwater prawn, pink shrimp, brown shrimp, mud crab, eels, cuttlefish, squid, mackerel and ribbon.

According to the Department of Fisheries, the fisheries sector now contributes over 3.5% to the national GDP, over 25% to the agricultural GDP, and 1.5% to the foreign exchange earnings by exporting fish and fish products.

It is expected that Bangladesh Embassy's participation in the Busan International Seafood & Fisheries EXPO 2021 will help enhance the country's trade relations with Korea and other nations.