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3. REGIONAL REVIEWS

3.1 Asia

China, East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, West Asia

China, East Asia,

Southeast Asia, South Asia,

West Asia

Tacon, A.G.J.

Figure 3.1
Figure 3.1. Contribution of Asia toward total world aquaculture production by weight (mt) Asia’s contribution toward total world aquaculture production increased from 83.8% to 90.1% from 1984 to 1995, with production in 1995 at 25.0 million mt (up by 10.1% from 1994) valued at US$34.8 thousand million (up by 5.5% from 1994) or 82.3% of total world aquaculture production by value (Figures 3.1 and 3.2).

Figure 3.2
Figure 3.2. Contribution of major Asian regions to total world aquaculture production in 1995
The average growth of the aquaculture sector in Asia has been more than twice that in the rest of the world, with the sector displaying an APR1 of 10.4 by weight since 1984 (12.7% by value) compared with 4.3% by weight or 9.8% by value for all other countries (Figure 3.1). Aquaculture production has been growing more than four times faster than landings from capture fisheries (APR of 2.2 since 1984), with aquaculture’s share of total fisheries landings in the region increasing nearly two fold from 20.7% in 1984 to 38.0% in 1995 (Figure 3.3). The top seven aquaculture-producing countries in the world were all Asian: China, India, Japan, Republic of Korea, Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand; these seven countries produced 85% of world aquaculture production in 1995.

Figure 3.3
Figure 3.3. Contribution of aquaculture toward total fisheries production in Asia In terms of food supply (i.e. finfish and shellfish, live weight equivalent) the region produced over 87% of total world food fish production from aquaculture in 1995, compared with only 36% in the case of terrestrial animal meat products. According to the latest FAO fishery food balance sheets (Laureti, 1996), although per caput food fish supply within the region was only 13.9 kg in 1993 (fourth in rank after Oceania, Europe and North America), total food fish supply (including landings from both capture fisheries and aquaculture) has been increasing at an average rate of 3.3% per year since 1984, and it is estimated that the share of aquaculture is currently about one third of this.

Table 3.1 summarizes the contribution of the Asian region to total world aquaculture production by major species groups. The proportion of freshwater species production in the region increased from 37.2% to 49.1% from 1984 to 1995, an average annual rate of 13.2%. By contrast, the proportion of aquaculture production in brackishwater environments decreased from 5.4% to 5.0%, and that of marine production decreased from 57.4% to 46.0% in the same period, with annual production increases averaging 9.6% and 8.2% by weight, respectively.

Reference

Laureti, E. (comp). 1996. Fish and fishery products: world apparent consumption statistics based on food balance sheets (1961-1993). FAO Fisheries Circular No. 821, Rev. 3. Rome, FAO. 235p.



1 Annual Percent Rate: average annual compunded growth rate in percent