Colombo, Jan 28 (IANS): Sri Lanka's export revenue from fish and fisheries products grew 47.9 per cent in 2021, a Minister said on Friday.

Despite challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the country's fisheries export revenue reached a record $318 million in 2021, compared to $215 million earned in 2020, Xinhua news agency quoted Kanchana Wijesekera, state minister of Ornamental Fish, Freshwater Fish and Shrimp Farming, as saying.

Sri Lanka's production of farmed shrimp nearly doubled in 2021 with export values increasing 162 per cent, Wijesekera said.

Meanwhile, revenue from the export of ornamental fish increased 74 per cent in 2021.

Wijesekera said domestic canned fish production rose from 90,000 units per day in January 2021 to 220,000 cans per day in December 2021, helping the country approach self-sufficiency in its total requirement of 275,000 cans per day.

Sri Lanka recorded the lowest volume and value of fish imports in a decade at 56,176 tonnes and $126 million, respectively, in 2021.

The country, therefore, netted a historic fish trade surplus of $192 million in 2021.

Sri Lanka's fisheries sector provides direct and indirect employment to over 585,000 people, according to data from the Ministry of Fisheries.