Critical Need to Increase Aquatic Food Production and Food Supply from Aquaculture and Capture Fisheries: Trends and Outlook

Abstract

This commentary reviews total aquatic food supply from aquaculture and capture fisheries from 2010 to 2020 at global, regional, and national levels within main producing countries; aquatic animal foods include fish, crustaceans, molluscs, and other invertebrate animals destined for direct human consumption or as fish and seafood by the FAO. Whilst total combined aquatic animal food supply from aquaculture and capture fisheries has increased on a global basis from 18.59 to 20.49 kg/capita over the past decade, the global supply has not kept up with population growth over the same period. Of particular concern was the decrease in fish and seafood food supply within the African region, decreasing from 10.40 to 9.58 kg/capita, whilst population growth increased by 3.12%/year over the same period. Moreover, the Asian region was the only region where per capita fish and seafood food supply exceeded population growth; the bulk of fish and seafood supply being sourced from increased aquaculture production of primarily freshwater fish species, compared with other regions where marine wild fisheries still dominated fish and seafood supply. Fish and seafood supply in leading aquaculture and capture fisheries producing countries between 2010 and 2020, including China, Indonesia, India, Viet Nam, Bangladesh, South Korea, Japan, and USA are presented and demonstrate growth in per capita fish and seafood supply being lower than human population growth in Ecuador, Philippines, Turkey, Chile, Norway, Brazil, Myanmar, the South Korea, and Japan. If aquatic food supplies from aquaculture and inland/marine capture fisheries are to make an increasing global contribution to healthy diets, then the increased production and market availability of these products needs to be promoted by governments and actively encouraged and stimulated, particularly within the African continent.

Keywords:

• Aquaculture
• capture fisheries
• fish
• malnutrition
• per capita food supply
• seafood

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Drs. Jay Parsons and Yugui Zhu for comments on an early version of the manuscript and Eric Heupel for design and preparation of graphics.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Fish and seafood products is a specific term used within the FAO Food Balance Sheets, and includes freshwater fish, demersal fish, pelagic fish, other marine fish, crustaceans, cephalopods, other molluscs, and other aquatic invertebrate animals, and excludes aquatic mammals, reptiles, seaweeds, and aquatic plants.