While the sector has the potential to nourish the world’s growing population, the FAO insists its growth must be sustainable
Despite the worldwide spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, global aquaculture production reached a record 122.6 million tonnes that year, including 87.5 million tonnes of aquatic animals worth USD 264.8 billion and 35.1 million tonnes of algae worth $16.5 billion, confirms the 2022 edition of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations’ (FAO) biennial publication ‘The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture’ (SOFIA).
The UN body reports that around 54.4 million tonnes of this total was farmed in inland waters and 68.1 million tonnes came from marine and coastal aquaculture, while all regions except Africa experienced continued aquaculture growth that year.
But while farmed production, which has been the main driver in the seafood supply growth since the late 1980s, has continued on its long-term production growth trend, that rate of growth has slowed – to a level of 3.3% in 2018–2019 and 2.6% in 2019–2020 versus an average of 4.6% per year during the period 2010–2018.
These lower growth rates are due to a range of factors, including the impact of policy changes in China focused on environmental protection and various issues linked to the health crisis that not only impacted production for export markets, but also reduced availability of workers, supplies and inputs. Disruptions to transportation and marketing, plus sanitary measures also left their marks.
Blue transformation
The SOFIA report highlights that by 2030 aquatic food production is forecast to increase by a further 15%, and that this will be mainly accomplished by intensifying and expanding sustainable aquaculture production.
Alongside the concept and vision of ‘Blue Transformation’ which emerged at the 34th session of the FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI) in 2021 to provide a targeted effort to promote innovations that scale up the contribution of aquatic food systems to food security and nutrition and affordable, healthy diets, SOFIA maintains that such growth by the aquaculture sector must preserve aquatic ecosystem health, prevent pollution, and protect biodiversity and social equality.
According to the report, Blue Transformation must aim to:
- Increase the development and adoption of sustainable aquaculture practices
- Integrate aquaculture into national, regional and global development strategies and food policies
- Expand and intensify aquaculture production to meet the growing demand for aquatic food and enhance inclusive livelihoods
- Improve capacities at all levels to develop and adopt innovative technology and management practices for a more efficient and resilient aquaculture industry
Addressing challenges
FAO’s projections foresee an increase in both the production and importance of aquaculture in global seafood consumption in the future. It expects the total supply to rise to 106 million tonnes in 2030, with an overall growth of 22% or nearly 19 million tonnes compared with 2020 and that expansions will continue on all continents, with variations in the range of species and products across countries and regions. At the same time, the share of farmed species in global seafood production is expected to grow from 49% to 53%.
Additionally, SOFIA states that in the next 10 years, aquaculture must expand sustainably to satisfy the gap in global demand for aquatic foods, especially in food-deficit regions, while also generating new or securing existing sources of income and employment. This, it said, requires updating aquaculture governance by fostering improved planning, legal and institutional frameworks and policies.
“FAO and its partners must focus on the urgent demand for the development and transfer of innovative technologies and best practices to generate efficient, resilient and sustainable operations.”
It explains that the continued transformation of aquaculture applies to most regions but is particularly critical in food-insecure regions; and the aim is to increase global production by 35-40% by 2030.
The report also offers that focus priority areas for innovative aquaculture practices should include aquafeeds and feeding, digitalisation, and the promotion of efficient and pro-environment practices. It further suggests that implementing these solutions requires adequate capacity and skills, training, research and partnerships, and that these can benefit from developments in information and communications technology and wider access to mobile applications and platforms.
As FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu writes in SOFIA 2022’s foreword, “Despite significant previous progress, the world is off track to end hunger and malnutrition in all its forms by 2030”, and “prioritising and better integrating fisheries and aquaculture products in global, regional and national food system strategies and policies should be a vital part of the necessary transformation of our agrifood systems.”
