AQUACULTURE remains the world's fastest growing food production sector, with 47.8 million tonnes of production each year, according to a new report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO). And with capture fisheries levelled off, fish farming is providing ever-greater amounts of fish for food.

According to the Organisation’s latest State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA) report, released today, while in 1980 just 9 percent of the fish consumed by human beings came from aquaculture, today 43 percent does.

Captures of fish in the wild have reached a record high of 95 million tonnes a year, with 85.8 million tonnes coming from marine fisheries and 9.2 million tonnes from inland fisheries.

Overall, global fisheries production (marine and inland capture fisheries plus fish farming) totals 141.6 million tonnes annually. Around 105.6 million tonnes of this (75%) is used for direct human consumption; the rest is used for non-food products, in particular the manufacture of fishmeal and oil.

Fish and fishery products are the most traded food in the world. The global trade in fish and fishery products has also reached a record high, with an export value of US$71.5 billion - up 23 percent compared to 2000.

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