ABSTRACT
Fish and fi shery products are among the most traded food commodities worldwide, with trade volumes and values expected to carry on rising. The contribution of fi sheries to total animal protein intake by humans is signifi cant (at 16.6%) and is probably higher than indicated by offi cial statistics in view of the under-recorded contribution of small-scale and subsistence fi sheries. While capture fi sheries’ production remains stable (90.4 million tons in 2011), aquaculture production keeps on expanding, reaching 63.6 million tons in 2011 (FAO 2012). Aquaculture is set to remain one of the fastest-growing animal food-producing sectors and total production from both capture and aquaculture exceeds that of beef, pork or poultry. Eighty fi ve percent of the 154 million tons of fi sh and fi shery production is used as food for humans and the annual per capita consumption has grown from around 10 kg (live weight equivalent) in the 1990s to 18.8 kg in 2011 (FAO 2012).
