More highlights from SOFIA report
Production
In 1995, fish landings by capture fisheries amounted to 90.7 million tonnes,
with ten countries accounting for 70 percent of the total volume.
- Aggregate production in low-income food-deficit countries (LIFDCs) continued the pattern of high growth that has characterized recent years, showing an average annual rate of increase of 6.9 percent during the period 1988 to 1994. In 1994, LIFDCs accounted for 35 percent of total production, compared with 26 percent in 1988.
- Provisional production figures for mariculture and inland aquaculture show an estimated increase from 18.6 million tonnes in 1994 to 21.3 million tonnes in 1995. Five Asian countries - China, India, Japan, Republic of Korea and the Philippines - supplied 80 percent of this volume.
- Aquaculture's contribution to world fishery production has increased consistently since the 1980s, and maintained its position as one of the fastest-growing food production activities in the world.
Utilization
Fish supplies for consumption reached 80.8 million tonnes in 1995, 3.4
million tonnes more than in 1994, representing a greater increase than the estimated
population growth rate in the same year. This new record level brings the total amount
of fish food available to an annual average of 14 kg per person (live weight equivalent).
- Demand for food fish in the year 2010 is estimated to reach between 110 and 120 million tonnes, compared with 75 to 80 million tonnes in 1994/95.
- Some 31.5 million of the estimated 112.3 million tonnes of total fishery production
in 1995 were used for reduction.
Trade
- The value of international fish trade continues to increase. Preliminary figures put the value of global fish exports in 1995 at more than US$50 000 million, up from the previous year's total of $47 000 million and nearly triple the $17 000 million reached in 1985.
- Developed countries were reported to account for about 85 percent of total fish imports in 1995 in value terms.
- Japan continued as the largest importer of fishery products, with some 30 percent of the global total.
- Archive of News and Highlights
17 March 1997
