December 6, 2006

 

Asia responsible for 90 percent of world aquaculture production

 

 

For 2004, close to 70 percent of the world aquaculture production comes from China, and 22 percent from the rest of Asia and the Pacific region, according to the State of World Aquaculture Report 2006 by the UN's FAO.

 

The report also gives a detailed account of the state of aquaculture in each region and the import restrictions, disease problems and other issues encountered in the different aquaculture industries of the world.

 

The Western European region contributed 3.5 percent while the Central and Eastern Europe region contributed 0.4 percent of the global total for 2004, the report said.

 

In Asia and the Pacific region aquaculture production from South Asia, China and most of Southeast Asia consists of cyprinids, while that from the rest of East Asia consist of high-value marine fish, the report said.

 

The report also pointed out that in global terms, 97.5 percent of cyprinids and 87.4 percent of penaeids come from Asia and the Pacific region. Meanwhile, 55.6 percent of the world's farmed salmonids from Western Europe, mainly from the northern region of the continent.

 

Carps dominate in the Central and Eastern Europe region, both in quantity and in value. In North America, channel catfish is the top aquaculture species, while Atlantic and Pacific salmon dominate in Canada.

 

In the Latin America and Caribbean region, over the last decade salmonids have overtaken shrimp as the top aquaculture species group due to disease outbreaks in major shrimp producing areas, the report pointed out.

 

However, aquaculture of tilapia in Sub-saharan Africa, which is native to the continent, has not developed to a large degree. Nigeria leads in the region with 44 000 tonnes of catfish, tilapia and other freshwater fishes reported.

 

Still, aquaculture for black tiger shrimp is getting popular in Madagascar, and production of niche species like abalone in South Africa is increasing.

 

In North Africa and the Near East, Egypt is by far the dominant producing country and is now the second biggest tilapia producer after China and is the world's top producer of mullets, the report said.

 

World aquaculture has grown at an average annual rate of 8.8 percent from 1950 to 2004.

 

Overall, Latin America and the Caribbean region had the highest average annual growth of 21.3 percent followed by and the Near East and North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa, with 10.8 percent and 10.7 percent respectively.

 

The average growth rate for the Asia and the Pacific region was 9.8 percent, while production in China, onsidered separately, has grown at a rate of 12.4 percent per year.

 

The high growth rate in the Latin America and Caribbean region is understandable since aquaculture was almost non-existent in the area from the 1950s to the early 1970s.

 

South American aquaculture development is very much tied with shrimp and salmon and is concentrated mainly in Ecuador, Chile and Brazil, the repor said.

 

In 2004, aquaculture production from mariculture was 30.2 million tonnes, representing 50.9 percent of the global total. Freshwater aquaculture contributed 25.8 million tonnes, or 43.4 percent.

 

The remaining 3.4 million tonnes, or 5.7 percent, came from production in brackish environments.

 

 

For the full FAO report, please click here.

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