Aquaculture factsheet

About 430 (97%) of the aquatic species presently in culture have been domesticated since the start of the 20th century and the number of aquatic species domesticated is still rising rapidly. It was recently estimated that aquaculture provides 43% of all the fish consumed by humans today.

Fisheries products are the world’s most widely traded foods, with commerce dominated by developing countries. The total value of world capture fisheries production in 2009 was US$93.9 billion, a value greater than the global combined net exports of rice, coffee, sugar, and tea.

The second most consumed aquaculture species in the EU are salmon and mussel. Nine out of ten mussels eaten in the EU are actually farmed. Almost all of EU aquaculture production is consumed in Europe. Norway is the EU's principal supplier of aquaculture products.

The United States imports (mostly from Asia) 91% of its seafood, about half of which is from aquaculture. This results in a large and growing annual seafood trade deficit of more than 10.4 billion.

Some 58.3 million people were engaged in the primary sector of capture fisheries and aquaculture in 2012. Of these, 37 percent were engaged full time. In 2012, 84 percent of all people employed in the fisheries and aquaculture sector were in Asia, followed by Africa (more than 10 percent). About 18.9 million were engaged in fish farming (more than 96 percent in Asia)