Environment and aquaculture in developing countries

Nevertheless, the regional and global
trends deducedfrom the data can be viewed
with some confidence. This is primarily
due to the efforts of those countries which
are supplying the more reliable data (e.g.,
Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea,
Malaysia, Taiwan, the Philippines and
Thailand) or have recently improved their
database (e.g., Bangladesh, China,
Vietnam).
Another source of frustration is the
timegap between the date ofthe attempted
review and that of the latest available
data. In this paper the latest data are for
1990.

Aquaculture Production

Volume and Value
of Production

The share ofAsia inglobal aquaculture
increasedfrom 80% in1975 to 81% in 1980
and to 85% by 1990, despite significant
breakthroughs on other continents (e.g.,
in salmon culture in Europe and in shrimp
culture in Latin America). In 1990, out of
the 15.3 million tonnes of the world total,
12.9 million tonnes were produced in the
Asia-Pacific region (Table 1).
Developingcountries ofAsia produced
75% of the global aquaculture production
in 1990. However, the value was only 63%

of the world total (Table 2). The average

value of aquaculture products in 1990 was

US$1.44 perkgin the developingcountries

of the region, while it reached $2.42/kg in

the rest of the world and as much as $2.891

kg in the developed countries of Asia and

the Pacific (Japan, Australia and New

Zealand). The reason behind these

differencesis that the developingcountries

of the region culture primarily aquatic

organisms low in the food chain (e.g.,

seaweeds, molluscs and noncarnivorous

finfishes). These commodities are usually

significantly cheaper than aquatic animals

higher in the food chain (e.g., crustaceans

and carnivorous fish) preferred in

developed countries.

Tablc 1. Global aquaculture production in 1990.

(Source: FA0 1992a).

Produdion Share

ContinenUregion (x lo3 t) (%)

Asia + Pacific 12,954.8 84.5

Europe + ex-USSR 1,628.2 10.6

North America 407.1 2.7

South America + Caribbean 216.6 1.4

Akica + Middle East 115.8 0.13

World total 15,322.5 100.0

Table 2. Volume and value of aquaculture production in 1990. (Source: FA0 1992a).

Volume Value

Countries/~*cgions (X lo3 t) (%) (x106US$) (%)

Developing Asidl'acilic 11,540.4 75.3 16,637.2 62.9

Developed Asidl'acific* 1,414.4 9.2 4,083.9 16.4

AsiaPacific total 12,964.8 84.5 20,721.1 78.3

Rest uf the World 2,367.9 15.5 5,734.3 21.7

World total 15,322.7 100.0 26,455.4 100.0

*Not~: UwAop~d countries otAsidlJacili~ are Australia, Japan and New Zealand.