This short paper is intended to complement the information that was provided at the previous GFCM Committee on Aquaculture by describing the advance in production of aquaculture in the Mediterranean and Black Sea basins.

The statistics covering the period 1994-98 are attached. In a few cases the Information Systems for Promotion of Aquaculture in the Mediterranean (SIPAM) has included statistical data for 1999, but the incompleteness of the regional record limits the analysis to the 1998 data. Discrepancies have been observed between various databases, which should be clarified in the near future.

Table 1 contains the information related to the total production in GFCM member countries with coastline on the Mediterranean or Black Sea. These production figures also include freshwater aquaculture production and the aquaculture production of France and Spain from the Atlantic coast. The statistics indicate that the situation in the ranking of country production remains as it was in 1994, with France, Italy and Spain as leading countries in terms of production.

If we examine the annual growth rates in the production statistics of the FAO FIDI database (more complete in terms of number of countries), total aquaculture production in the region reached 1 145 670 t in 1998, or an increase of 38.6% from the 827 178 t recorded for 1994. This corresponds to an annual average growth rate of 8.5% in this period. In terms of groups of species the group that has shown the fastest growth has been the marine finfish that moved from 52 317 t to 143 851 t in 1998 which corresponds to an annual increase of 26.7% in this period. Molluscs, the main group in terms of quantities, grew in this period from 526 534 t to 678 808 t corresponding to an annual increase of 6.6% which improves on the performance of previous years.

Total value of the production in 1998 amounted to US$ 2 430 million with an increase of US$ 702 million over 1994 (Table 2). This corresponds to an annual average increase of 8.9%. In terms of contribution to the economy marine finfish becomes the first group, with US$ 837 million (US$ 366 million in 1994), which is a change from 1994 when mollusc and diadromous fish were in the first two places. The reason for including also the Atlantic production in these statistics is mainly because the products from that area end up anyway in the domestic markets of both Spain and France.

If we consider only the production of mariculture and brackishwater culture in the Mediterranean and Black Sea (Table 3), total production increased by about 95 000 t, from 234 220 t in 1994 to 329 266 t in 1988. This is an annual growth rate of 8.9%, which has been propelled by marine finfish that moved from 39 837 t in 1994 to 103 973 t in 1998, growing at 27% per year. Molluscs remains the main group in production with nearly 220 000 t, although the statistics have to be probably revised in the case of Italy.

The production value of mariculture and brackishwater products in the Mediterranean and Black Sea reached about US$ 960 million in 1998 while it was US$ 537 million in 1994. In this case the influence of marine finfish has been greater and they become by far the first economic group in the region with over US$ 702 million. This represents an annual average growth of 23.5%.

The evolution of the production and commodities has not been homogenous in the member countries. It can be noticed that with the correction of the Spanish data for mollusc production, mussel culture remains the most important commodity in terms of volume at country level, but in this case the majority of this production comes from the Atlantic coast.

If we turn to the evolution of aquaculture production in the countries, including the freshwater sector and Atlantic production, aquaculture has evolved negatively in some of the countries, with Albania losing its production almost entirely and Algeria, Bulgaria and Romania showing negative trends. The situation is aggravating in Albania and Romania and the rate of decrease in Bulgaria is almost constant. Some of the countries with relatively small aquaculture sectors like Cyprus, Lebanon, Malta and Syria have shown considerable activity in the 1994-98 period with annual growth rates ranging from 12.5% to 41.8% per year. But it is the fast increase in production in Spain, Egypt, Turkey and Greece, in that order, which has fuelled the growth of the sector in the four years analysed. Average annual growth rates in these countries are impressive, with over 37% in the case of Turkey, 25% in Egypt and over 15% in Greece and Spain. Italy, which is another of the largest producers in the region, registered nearly a 5% increase in production while, production in France remained basically static.

If we examine the marine and brackishwater aquaculture sector in the Mediterranean and Black Sea, the main producer remains Italy with nearly 200 000 t, growing at 6.3% per year, although the statistics will have to be verified for mollusc production. The countries could be classified into four groups; a first group that does not report production in marine and brackish waters and that includes Lebanon, Libya, Romania and Syria. A second group contributes a limited amount (below 100 t per country) and includes Albania, Algeria, Bulgaria and possibly Spain, although in this last case the statistics reported to FAO seem to be inaccurate for the Mediterranean region. A third group with country production between 1 000 and 3 000 t includes Croatia, Cyprus, Israel, Malta, Morocco and Tunisia, in which Croatia, Cyprus and Malta have a fast growth. Tunisia seems to have reached a plateau, which is also noticed in the case of Morocco where a decreasing trend is also appearing. The fourth group includes countries with production over 10 000 t including Egypt, France, Greece, Italy and Turkey, in which Egypt (44%), Greece (17%) and Turkey (28%) have shown fast growth rates in the period under examination.

Looking at species contribution to production (Table 4), the main elements to be noticed for the marine and brackishwater species is that mussels have experienced a rapid growth in the period 1994-98 (including the production from the Atlantic coast), which may, however, be a statistical artefact due to the correction of the Spanish statistics for this product. The rapid increase in production of gilthead seabream and seabass is very evident with over 53 000 t in 1998 in the case of the first species and over 43 000 t for the second. The annual average increase in the production of these two species has been similar at about 26-27%. Noticeable also is the production increase for Mugil cephalus, which is mainly coming from Egypt and which according to this country report, has experienced a growth even faster than that of seabass and gilthead seabream.

Although trials to identify new finfish species for production are on-going in most countries since the beginning of the 1990s, no real replacement has been found for the two major species which have experienced a considerable decrease in price due to the fast growth in production. Many of the trials have centered on sparid species and it is to a certain extent doubtful that these could be considered real replacements from a marketing point of view.

The economic contribution of the various species to the sector is very different. If we consider only the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, without the freshwater species, then the two main species are gilthead seabream and seabass, with US$ 330 million and US$ 324 million, respectively. These two species together represent 68% of the value of the entire production from marine and brackishwater areas in the region. The average growth rates for the value of these two species is around 23% per year which when compared to 26-27% increase in production rates shows a reduction in unit prices due to the fast increase in supply, which is the main preoccupation of the Mediterranean marine farmers. Clams and mussels represent two other commodities of importance with a value in 1998 of about US$ 110 million each. Mullets come next at a considerable distance with US$ 38 million in 1998. In all these cases the average increase in value has been lower than the average increase in production showing a progressive difficulty to absorb the fast growing production in the main markets.

If the freshwater production is also considered as well as the production from the Atlantic coast in France and Spain, then the picture changes with ten commodities contributing more than US$ 100 million in 1998. In this new classification rainbow trout becomes the main species with US$ 381 million, followed by gilthead seabream (US$ 362 million ) and seabass (US$ 336 million). Mussels are fourth with a value of US$ 260 million and oysters come fifth with a value of US$ 239 million, due mainly to the production in the French and Spanish Atlantic coast. Common carp is another important commodity with a contribution of US$ 152 million in 1998 followed by salmon and tilapia with US$ 114 and US$ 112 million, respectively. Clams and mullets close the list with values of US$ 110 and US$ 104 million in 1998. Of these commodities the ones which have shown a faster annual average growth in the period 1994-98 and in terms of contribution to the local economies are salmon which grew at nearly 30% per year followed by mullets with 27% per year, seabass and gilthead seabream with 23.7% and 22.8%, respectively.

In summary, the increase in aquaculture production in the region since the First Session of the GFCM Committee on Aquaculture has been considerable and so has the increase in contribution of this sector to the national economies. We observe a progressive polarization of the sector not exempt from problems, which if not tackled in time may compromise the sustainability of the sector in the long term. These problems, of multidisciplinary nature and clearly interrelated, require the collaboration of all member countries for a solution and have been debated at length during the Consultation on the Application of the Article 9 of the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries in the Mediterranean Region.

	1984	1986	1988	1990	1992	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	APR84-98	APR94-98
Albania	1197	2165	3732	4961	397	395	340	323	97	24	-24.4	-50.4
Algeria	95	250	304	407	147	389	369	322	322	283	8.1	-7.6
Bulgaria	14571	12138	12141	7849	8132	6100	4615	4727	5437	4252	-8.4	-8.6
Croatia					6809	4946	4014	2895	3517	5958		4.8
Cyprus	60	57	59	125	155	291	452	787	969	1178	23.7	41.8
Egypt	27000	45500	52200	61916	63895	56603	61815	75837	73454	139389	12.4	25.3
France	192609	243671	227544	256653	250254	280954	280785	285636	287522	273920	2.5	-0.6
Greece	2542	2296	4079	9559	20306	33182	32644	39852	48838	59926	25.3	15.9
Israel	11502	12289	15135	14638	12211	14984	16180	17553	18264	18556	3.5	5.5
Italy	96900	107130	132314	153544	170377	206421	235725	214373	216719	249625	7.0	4.9
Lebanon	300	375	100	80	130	200	300	350	300	400	2.1	18.9
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya			30	70	80	90	100	100	100	100		2.7
Malta	0	0	0	3	500	904	904	1552	1800	1950		21.2
Morocco	180	148	158	415	741	1463	2072	2226	2290	2102	19.2	9.5
Romania	45134	47574	50680	34950	24620	20400	19830	13900	11168	9614	-10.5	-17.1
Spain	247426	268389	271356	203408	168740	177940	223950	231556	239136	313518	1.7	15.2
Syrian Arab Republic	2055	2573	3040	2729	5116	4521	5857	6355	5596	7233	9.4	12.5
Tunisia	241	252	1053	1023	859	1397	1050	1481	2012	1942	16.1	8.6
Turkey	2226	3075	4100	5782	9085	15998	21607	33201	45450	56700	26.0	37.2
TOTAL	644038	747882	778025	758112	742554	827178	912609	933026	962991	1146670	4.2	8.5
Table 1. Aquaculture Production by Countries, including Freshwater and Atlantic Coast Production.(t)

	1984	1986	1988	1990	1992	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	APR84-98	APR94-98
Albania	1326.4	2183.8	3017.4	3003.1	348.2	344.3	251.4	276.1	366.7	114.6	-16.0	-24.0
Algeria	341.6	809	1252.3	1062.2	362.9	959.6	970.5	860.2	860.2	794.1	6.2	-4.6
Bulgaria	18951.2	27488.8	31653.9	20470.5	21623.9	16350	12374	13146.9	14857.9	11059.8	-3.8	-9.3
Croatia					22875.6	13754.7	12545.6	9023.2	11372.9	23109.4		13.9
Cyprus	251.4	337.7	605	1690.4	1888.3	3107.9	4467.2	7511.7	8173.3	9012.5	29.1	30.5
Egypt	14400	26500	68660	124602	107273.2	103431.9	104994.2	145411.2	165871	327263.4	25.0	33.4
France	227040	453041.4	480326	527594.8	563360.3	640550.6	664731.9	603165.9	632943.8	614156.2	7.4	-1.0
Greece	6961.8	4891.2	12892.7	63494.9	177196.2	119720.3	157306.6	235863.6	246589.2	274996.7	30.0	23.1
Israel	19425.1	24185.2	30430.4	39818.7	32418.2	40214.1	48905.6	52470.3	63414.9	64385.8	8.9	12.5
Italy	175645.4	212375.4	276669.3	352761.4	390622.3	380848.6	435865.6	407249.1	406804.1	471139.2	7.3	5.5
Lebanon	1110	1158.4	308	280	487.5	1000	1500	1750	1500	2000	4.3	18.9
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya			30	84	120	135	150	150	150	150		2.7
Malta				18	4500	8127	8127	10119.2	10335.6	10559.9		6.8
Morocco	364.4	111.8	598.5	3659.1	6957.7	11014.3	12254.3	12149.9	9036.4	7564.3	24.2	-9.0
Romania	113108.8	119360.1	126929	87650	69118	51369	47982	35130	16572.2	15860.6	-13.1	-25.5
Spain	209225.5	236597.3	299954.5	350255.7	216237.6	203417.6	249820.3	249052.7	252243.2	282208.2	2.2	8.5
Syrian Arab Republic	5617	15651.2	18467.4	13447	23697.6	21645.1	26911.5	28986.3	25891.5	32875.6	13.5	11.0
Tunisia	571.8	683.9	2340.5	4447.8	7210.1	9107.6	5927.8	7492.6	10099.7	9282.7	22.0	0.5
Turkey	5767.5	8977	14817.5	31379.5	54411.9	106961.9	126417.1	178274.5	224240	277760	31.9	26.9
TOTAL	800108	1134352	1368953	1625719	1700710	1732059	1921503	1998083	2101323	2434293	8.3	8.9
Table 2. Value of Aquaculture production by Countries, including Freshwater and Atlantic Coast production (x1000 US $)

			1984		1986			1988			1990				1992			1994			1995			1996			1997		1998			Rank			APR84-98			APR94-98
Molluscs			74050		85290			104257			135240				145302			187569			206206			184280			181847		219012			1			8.1			4.0
Marine fishes			3868		4570			6616			10902				21845			39837			50205			63510			78106		103973			2			26.5			27.1
Aquatic plants											5000				5000			5000			5000			5000			5000		3000			3						-12.0
Diadromous fishes			925		876			1070			2135				2194			1707			1571			2236			3031		2923			4			8.6			14.4
Crustaceans					17			57			78				111			107			130			393			426		353			5						34.8
Freshwater fishes											3																3		5			6
TOTAL			78843		90753			112000			153358				174452			234220			263112			255419			268413		329266						10.7			8.9
Table 3 a. Production
			1984		1986			1988			1990				1992			1994			1995			1996			1997		1998			Rank			APR84-98			APR94-98
Marine fishes			11725.6		22674.4			47838.6			128400.1				288000.7			302097.6			373339.5			482089			543575		702560.3			1			34.0			23.5
Molluscs			70981.2		83519.6			100652.6			157137.8				174491.9			218252.8			270196.3			222587.3			203373.9		241196.9			2			9.1			2.5
Diadromous fishes			3825.5		5729			9617.7			20644.8				18297.3			13164.5			14027.2			13638.1			16169.5		12708.7			3			9.0			-0.9
Crustaceans					174.5			1125.6			1431.5				2589.2			1913.7			2391.5			3779.2			3542.6		2427.2			4						6.1
Aquatic plants											2508				2445			1863			1842			1944			1764		1036.8			5						-13.6
Freshwater fishes											18																6.5		10.5			6
TOTAL			86532.4		112098			159235			310140				485824			537292			661796			724038			768432		959940						18.8			15.6
Table 3 b. Value
Table 3. Production (t) and Value (x1000US$) of Main Groups in Marine and Brackishwater in Mediterranean and Black Sea . Ranked by 1998
						1984			1986			1988		1990			1992			1994			1995			1996		1997			1998			Rank (1998)			APR84-98		APR94-98
Mytilus edulis						279289			299954			288772		219942			186333			191100			231444			238424		241143			311062			1			0.8		13.0
Mytilus galloprovincialis						64765			74189			93896		107626			105232			133392			131936			129768		127592			157635			2			6.6		4.3
Crassostrea gigas						111422			145281			134120		143132			133511			147123			145388			150829		148258			144246			3			1.9		-0.5
Oncorhynchus mykiss						65104			74317			83022		93366			103894			116560			124351			127762		135272			127444			4			4.9		2.3
Cyprinus carpio						61775			64577			67401		65550			67350			49361			50290			51447		49789			77369			5			1.6		11.9
Sparus aurata						343			698			1656		4415			9284			20125			24029			32658		40888			53100			6			43.4		27.4
Oreochromis niloticus						12000			25000			25000		24918			21505			25214			21969			27854		30416			52755			7			11.2		20.3
Tapes spp									30			1934		16720			26750			40000			60000			40300		40000			48000			8					4.7
Salmo spp						890			1399			2259		3802			6531			7387			13079			18891		28959			34640			9			29.9		47.2
Mugil cephalus						3902			4169			6490		9811			11827			12290			19255			25230		21461			33639			10			16.6		28.6
Dicentrarchus labrax						325			797			1540		3657			8934			14507			18933			20686		26576			33396			11			39.2		23.2
Oreochromis (=Tilapia) spp						3551			3803			5207		5391			4494			6622			7070			8027		7187			8139			12			6.1		5.3
Other (89 entries)						40672			53668			66723		59680			55718			61086			61845			55768		58756			55433						2.2		-2.4
TOTAL						644038			747882			778025		758112			742554			827178			912609			933026		962991			1146670			4842			4.2		8.5
Table 4a. Species Production (t)
						1984			1986			1988		1990			1992			1994			1995			1996		1997			1998			Rank (1998)			APR84-98		APR94-98
Oncorhynchus mykiss						213096.8			259333.4			286121.8		294634.2			306984.3			287317			293212.7			335968.3		383842.5			380886.3			1			4.2		7.3
Sparus aurata						3414.5			8897.3			22340		61819.7			119830.1			159415.1			192793			272996.4		289248.8			362075.4			2			39.5		22.8
Dicentrarchus labrax						3259			9909.4			20182.9		61599.8			169620.6			143244.7			187967.2			218034.4		254332.7			335707.8			3			39.2		23.7
Crassostrea gigas						106520.9			252486			275479.6		285594.4			296174			314384.6			339384.7			261929.3		242920.6			239388.8			4			6.0		-6.6
Cyprinus carpio						92928.5			110938.1			124660.1		148182.5			130456.8			104711.2			103576.8			114728.2		110258.6			151996.7			5			3.6		9.8
Mytilus edulis						183446.4			214177.8			207228.3		219942			140317			117544.5			145664.5			141737.4		135729.5			151818.6			6			-1.3		6.6
Salmo spp						4195.5			6672			11189.5		19436			32265			40116.4			50432.4			71118.7		102685.6			114314			7			26.6		29.9
Oreochromis niloticus						8400			16250			37500		49844			39354.2			45385.2			37347.3			49134.5		62596.1			111671.8			8			20.3		25.2
Tapes spp									101			8190.5		46149.5			65429.3			99360			147359.9			104457.6		94080			110592			9					2.7
Mytilus galloprovincialis						51394.8			60600			73411.3		91334.9			85199.7			88550.5			89339.4			93304.1		85630.9			108027.8			10			5.4		5.1
Mugil cephalus						6456.2			9141.7			16837.3		38146			38391.5			39866.3			51914			67808.2		68265.4			103911.2			11			22.0		27.1
Other						126995.3			185845.6			285811.2		309035.8			276687			292163.8			282510.4			266866.3		271731.9			263902.8						5.4		-2.5
TOTAL						800108			1134352			1368953		1625719			1700710			1732059			1921503			1998083		2101323			2434293						8.3		8.9
Table 4b. Species Value (x1000 S$)
Table 4. Species Production and Value, (Including Freshwater and Atlantic Coast production). Ranking by 1998.