China produces two thirds of all cultured seafood
Of the total world production of cultured seafood, China puts out some 67%, reports the Food & Beverage News from Mumbai, India;
China is the top contributor to the global aquaculture production accounting for 34.43 million tonnes or 67% of the global production. India is a distant second with just 6% of the global production, followed by Thailand and Vietnam with 3.2% each and Indonesia with 2.5%, according to a paper by Ms Shirlene Maria Anthonysamy of Infofish. One prime reason for the low position of India was that aquaculture production was heavily tilted towards carps, barbells and other fish species, which accounted for 43% of the global production, while shrimp accounted for just 7%. Domestic aquaculture production is heavily dependent on shrimp, both in terms of value and quantity. Global aquaculture shrimp production has risen sharply since 1996 and touched 3.18 million tonnes in 2006, almost on par with global captured shrimp in quantity. Asia has been the major shrimp producing area followed by Latin America. Earlier, Black Tiger was the predominant species accounting for 46% of the global production However, a major shift to Vannamei shrimp by China and Thailand has made this species far more significant in the global aquaculture production basket. Consequently, Vannamei shrimp production has spurted and contributed 63% of the global farmed shrimp harvest in 2006. This has also elevated China and Thailand to the top position in global farmed shrimp production. In per capita consumption, shrimp is far ahead of other seafoods such as tuna, salmon and pollack. While the growth of global capture fisheries has more or less stagnated, aquaculture production has grown by 45% since 2000.
