Fish sourced from farms surpassed fisheries for first time

The United Nations has released its 2024 The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture report. The report highlights in 2022, aquaculture production (94.4 million t) surpassed capture fisheries production (91 million t). This was the first time aquaculture surpassed fisheries.

As many fisheries are struggling to sustainably meet high consumer demand, aquaculture has grown to meet the gap of supply and demand.

The UN report shared world aquaculture production of aquatic animals by region, highlighting Australia produced 53.2% of Oceania’s aquaculture through the supply of 125,000 t of live weight equivalent, and the report projects aquaculture will grow 7.5% in 2032 with an estimated 140,000 t of live weight equivalent of aquaculture. 

Charles Darwin University Professor of Tropical Aquaculture Professor Sunil Kadri said: “Fisheries and aquaculture have been carried out for 1000s of years, with fisheries having dominated supply historically, as it is a form of hunting, which has grown to an industrial scale.

“However, despite the growth, fisheries have not been able to sustainably meet demand, and so aquaculture has had to grow to fill the gap. The largest and fastest growing producer of cultured fish is China, where freshwater fish dominate both growth and volume.

“Other major producers are also growing their production, and are often dominated by marine fish/crustaceans, such as Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, India, Norway, Ecuador, Indonesia and Chile.

“Australia is a minor player in global aquaculture, with most products being consumed domestically, while the major players often export most of their production.

“There are several challenges to sustaining growth: available space, especially for coastal aquaculture, where there can be often conflicts over resource use; good quality water, especially freshwater, in which to grow animals is becoming a limiting factor; importantly, climate change is exacerbating these issues, as well as the problem of diseases and fish welfare.

“Many species are grown using fishmeal (protein from specific fisheries) as an ingredient, and while supplies of these are flat, demand continues to grow, hence a lot of work has been put into substituting these ingredients with others,” Kadri said.

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