The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2020

particular of aquaculture), urbanization and the 
significant increase in population of emerging 
economies, and their proportion of middle-class 
citizens with higher income, particularly in Asia.
Since 1961, average per capita fish consumption 
has been increasing in Asia at an annual rate of 
2 percent. Per capita fish consumption in Latin 
America and Africa has also been increasing 
faster than the large traditional markets in the 
same period, both at 1.3 percent, but these regions 
started from a lower base. Meanwhile, per capita 
fish consumption in Europe and North America 
has been increasing by less than 1 percent 
(0.8 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively), while 
it has decreased by 0.2 percent per year in Japan. 
More recently, the growth rate of per capita 
consumption in the latter markets has declined 
further. Demand growth in value can still occur 
as per capita consumption levels off in maturing 
markets, reflecting a shift toward more expensive, 
value-added products rather than increases in 
quantity consumed.
At the regional and continental levels, the lowest 
per capita fish consumption occurs in Africa, 
where it peaked at 10.5 kg in 2014 and then 
declined to 9.9 kg in 2017 (
Table 16
). Yet, within 
Africa, consumption ranged from a maximum of 
about 12 kg per capita in West Africa to 5 kg per 
capita in East Africa. Major growth was observed 
in North Africa (from 2.9 kg per capita to 14.7 kg 
per capita between 1961 and 2017), while per 
capita fish consumption has remained static or 
decreased in some countries in sub-Saharan 
Africa. Low fish consumption in sub-Saharan 
Africa is the result of a number of interconnected 
TABLE 16
TOTAL AND PER CAPITA APPARENT FISH CONSUMPTION BY REGION AND ECONOMIC GROUPING, 2017
Region/economic grouping
Total food fish consumption
(million tonnes
live weight equivalent)
Per capita food
fish consumption
(kg/year)
World
152.9
20.3
World (excluding China)
97.7
16.0
Africa
12.4
9.9
North America
8.1
22.4
Latin America and the Caribbean
6.7
10.5
Asia
108.7
24.1
Europe
16.1
21.6
Oceania
1.0
24.2
Developed countries
31.0
24.4
Least developed countries
12.4
12.6
Other developing countries
109.5
20.7
Low-income food-deficit countries
23.6
9.3
NOTE: Data are preliminary. Discrepancies with Table 1 in the Overview are due to the impact of trade and stock data in the overall calculation of the FAO Food Balance Sheets.
SOURCE: FAO.
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THE STATE OF WORLD FISHERIES AND AQUACULTURE 
2020
factors, including among others: population 
increasing at a higher rate than food fish supply; 
stagnation of fish production because of pressure 
on capture fisheries resources; and a poorly 
developed aquaculture sector. Moreover, low 
income levels contribute to low fish consumption, 
as do inadequate landing, storage and processing 
infrastructure and the lack of marketing and 
distribution channels necessary to commercialize 
fish products. However, it should be stressed 
that in Africa actual values are probably higher 
than indicated by official statistics, in view of 
the under-recorded contribution of subsistence 
fisheries, some small-scale fisheries and informal 
cross-border trade. 
The broad trends that have driven growth in 
global fish consumption in recent decades have 
been paralleled by many fundamental changes in 
the ways consumers choose, purchase, prepare 
and consume fish products. The globalization 
of fish and fish products, propelled by increased 
trade liberalization and facilitated by advances in 
food processing and transportation technologies, 
has expanded supply chains to the point 
where a given fish may be harvested in one 
country, processed in another and consumed 
in yet another. International trade has helped 
to reduce the impact of geographical location 
and limited domestic production, broadening 
the markets for many species and offering 
wider choices to consumers. Imports make up 
a substantial and increasing portion of fish 
consumed in Europe and North America (about 
70–80 percent) and Africa (35 percent in 2017, 
down from over 40 percent in previous years) 
because of solid demand, including that for 
non-locally produced species, in the face of 
static or declining domestic fish production. 
This development has allowed consumers to 
access species of fish that are caught or farmed 
in regions far from their point of purchase, and 
it has introduced new species and products to 
what were previously only local or regional 
markets. Although the choices available to an 
individual consumer have multiplied, at the 
global level they are increasingly similar among 
countries and regions. Seasonal shortages of 
individual species in certain markets are also 
mitigated to some extent by the international 
diversification of supply sources and advances 
in preservation technologies. As a result, major 
supply shocks affecting key species are likely 
to affect consumption for a greater number 
of people in more geographically dispersed 
markets. Increasing consumer awareness of 
sustainability, legality, safety and quality issues 
is driving demand for traceability systems and 
certification schemes of a growing range of fish 
and fish products. 
Urbanization has also shaped the nature and 
extent of fish consumption in many countries. 
Since 2007, the urban population has accounted 
for more than half of the world’s people, and it 
continues to grow. The number of megacities 
(cities with more than 10 million inhabitants) 
reached 33 in 2018, of which more than 
15 are in developing countries (UN DESA, 
2018). Urban inhabitants typically have more 
disposable income to spend on animal proteins 
such as fish, and they eat away from home more 
often. In addition, the infrastructure available 
in urban areas allows for more efficient storage, 
distribution and marketing of fish and fish 
products. Hypermarkets and supermarkets 
are developing rapidly throughout Africa, 
Asia and Latin America, and fish products are 
increasingly sold through these channels as 
opposed to traditional fishmongers and fish 
markets. At the same time, the ease of food 
preparation represents an increasingly important 
consideration for urban dwellers with fast-paced 
lifestyles and higher demands on their time. 
As a result, the demand for fish products 
prepared and marketed for convenience, through 
both retail and fast-food services, is rapidly 
increasing. The dietary preferences of modern 
urban consumers are also characterized by an 
emphasis on healthy living and a relatively 
high interest in the origin of the foods they 
eat – trends likely to continue to influence fish 
consumption patterns in both traditional and 
emerging markets. 
Although fish producers and marketers 
can maintain a degree of responsiveness 
to the evolution of consumer preferences, 
natural resource availability and biological 
considerations are key in determining which 
species and products are made available to 
consumers. Significant expansion of aquaculture 
since the mid-1980s has resulted in a sharp 
increase in the proportion of farmed fish 
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PART 1 
WORLD REVIEW
consumed relative to wild-caught alternatives, 
even if differences exist among countries and 
regions in terms of preference, with a higher 
share of farmed fish being consumed by Asian 
countries, the main producers. At the global 
level, since 2016, aquaculture has been the main 
source of fish available for human consumption, 
a remarkable increase considering that this 
share was only 4 percent in 1950, 9 percent in 
1980 and 19 percent in 1990 (
Figure 27
). In 2018, 
this share was 52 percent, a figure that can be 
expected to continue to increase in the long 
term. It is also important to mention that these 
figures do not refer to the quantity effectively 
eaten (
Box 5
). If the edible amount is taken 
into account (e.g. excluding shells and other 
inedible parts, which can differ also according 
to traditions), capture fisheries should be 
still the main source of the fish eaten due 
to the higher share of farmed bivalves and 
crustaceans compared with wild ones, but the 
gap is narrowing. 
The dominance of aquaculture in global fish 
markets has significant implications for fish 
distribution and consumption. Fish farming 
allows greater control over production 
processes than do capture fisheries, and it 
is more conducive to vertical and horizontal 
integration in production and supply chains. 
As a result, aquaculture has expanded fish 
availability to regions and countries with 
otherwise limited or no access to the cultured 
species, often at cheaper prices, leading 
to improved nutrition and food security. 
The expansion in aquaculture production, 
especially for species such as shrimps, salmon, 
bivalves, tilapia, carp and catfish (including 
FIGURE 27
RELATIVE CONTRIBUTION OF AQUACULTURE AND CAPTURE FISHERIES TO FISH AVAILABLE
FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION
1958
1968
1978
1988
1998
2008
2018
Capture