Fresh Eyes on Fish Trade: Meet the current FAO GLOBEFISH Interns

A fish market stall in Rome, a dataset tracking small-scale fishers in the Pacific, a conversation with students about where their food comes from. For three young researchers currently working with FAO GLOBEFISH, these are not abstract exercises but part of a daily engagement with real trade systems, guided by analytical frameworks and their own curiosity.

Anniken Baklund and Ziyue Zhang, both students at the Norwegian School of Economics, joined GLOBEFISH as Trade and Market Interns, monitoring and analyzing trends in international fisheries and aquaculture trade. Within that structure, they have carved out research directions that reflect their own interests: the role of youth in fisheries and aquaculture value chains, and how digital storytelling and social media can change the way people relate to aquatic food consumption.

Anniken: “The internship has enabled me to apply theoretical knowledge from my studies to practical, real-world tasks. What has stood out most is how sensitive global fish trade is to change. A policy shift or political decision in one country can affect markets worldwide, reshaping export routes, prices, and access for producers and consumers. At the same time, fisheries and aquaculture play a crucial role in meeting a growing global demand for food and protein, highlighting how important these interconnected systems are for food security.”

Ziyue: “Working with GLOBEFISH has completely changed how I see data. What appears as numbers in a spreadsheet tells stories about countries, communities, and people. Behind every data point are real decisions and lived realities that are often invisible at first glance.”

During the World Food Forum at FAO headquarters in Rome, the interns engaged with students on how aquatic foods move through complex value chains, and why that journey matters for nutrition, livelihoods, and sustainability. A visit to one of Rome's wet fish markets brought that conversation to the ground: observing how products are labelled using FAO codes for major marine fishing areas for statistical purposes, traced back to their origin, and positioned within a broader market logic.

Ziyue: “Being in the market made everything more tangible. What we usually analyze in terms of origin and trade suddenly became visible through real products, labels, and how people interact with them.”

Julien Hambye brings a different lens. Working on the SVC4SIDS project, he is contributing to efforts that strengthen the socio-economic resilience of fish value chains in Small Island Developing States, with earlier work covering microfinance options in Cape Verde and Kiribati. This project gave him the space to follow his questions: his interest in what technology can do for people often left outside market systems led him to independently develop data-monitoring solutions to open new opportunities for small-scale fishers. That initiative grew directly from research he led comparing levels of digitalization in fisheries sectors across Denmark, Spain, and Cambodia.

Julien: “Through my research on digital solutions to improve fisheries value chains, I learned about affordable technologies that have emerged in recent years. When adjusted to answer the needs of small-scale fishers, these solutions can add considerable market value to traded aquatic products and help facilitate decision-making.

What particularly stood out to me is the growing development and adoption of affordable data monitoring systems designed for small-scale fishers. I was curious to learn how this type of technology can be implemented for these groups, for whom the local traditions and environmental knowledge must remain a central focus. It is fascinating to see how the adoption of digital solutions can elevate these communities, and how FAO can be a true lever in this process.”

This is, in many ways, how the FAO GLOBEFISH project is intended to work. Interns engage with the project’s ongoing analytical and outreach work while bringing their own questions to the table. The combination tends to produce something useful for everyone.

The FAO Internship Programme welcomes talented young women and men motivated to bring new perspectives and research experience to FAO's work. Eligibility criteria and application details are available [here]. Click here for eligibility criteria and application form.