Rome, Italy.- FAO and GLOBEFISH will participate in the annual Global Aquaculture Summit organized by the China Aquatic Products Processing and Marketing Alliance (CAPPMA) and the U.S. Soybean Export Council (USSEC) to discuss the challenges and opportunities for sustainable aquaculture production and consumption.
Aquaculture is probably the fastest growing food-producing sector. It now accounts for over 50 percent of the world’s fish that is used for food.
Fish is a vital source of animal proteins and healthy long-chain omega-3 fats, while also supplying other nutrients such as iodine, vitamin D and calcium. With the world population expected to reach nine billion by 2050, the aquaculture sector will play a key role in ensuring food and nutrition security as the increased demand will challenge fish production over coming decades.
Analyzing trends, challenges, opportunities as well as technological advances in the aquaculture sector will be the focus of the 2017 Global Aquaculture Summit. Experts from international organizations, industry, research institutions and associations will convene to discuss the current state of the global market performance, development of effective sustainable approaches, new technological innovation releases and the crucial role fish plays in nutrition.
The Summit Opening Ceremony will be addressed by the CAPPMA president on 30 June 2017 and will open the ground to the plenary session entitled “Present and Perspective of Global Aquaculture Industry”.
During the high level panel, Mr. Xiaowei Zhou, FAO Fishery Statistician, will present the global aquaculture production trends in Asia and in the Pacific Region.
Concurrent to the plenary session, the three day Summit will also offer several breakout session, on different topics.
On 30 June, the latest seafood consumption trends and retail developments in the Chinese, European and American markets will be presented by several experts in breakout session 1, dedicated to “Aquatic Products Consumption Trend Study”. The second breakout session will be focused on the “Practice and Outlook of Industrialized Aquaculture”, in which participants will hear about innovative technologies, automation and recirculation systems in aquaculture.
The following day will be dedicated to new breeding technologies, aquatic environments and disease control during breakout session 3 (“Aquaculture Technology Innovation Release”)and to modern ecological and integrated aquaculture practices during breakout session 4 (“Towards a Good Ecological Aquaculture”).
The last day, 2 July, will be dedicated to the latest research developments in the aquaculture feed sector during breakout session 5, during “Aquatic Nourishing Meal Marketing”, where experts will present updates on best practices in protein sources for aquaculture feeding.
That same day, representatives from the industry will focus on the fugu industry market during the “China Fugu Summit”, whereall aspects of the value chain will be discussed, including traceability and staff training on fugu breeding and processing.
Lastly, a workshop titled “Discussion on ASC Flatfish Standard Development” will take place, organized by CAPPMA and ASC, to explore the sustainable development of the flatfish industry in China.
Newly released FAO data on aquaculture in brief
The world total aquaculture production in 2015 was 106 million tonnes in live weight, with an estimated farm gate value of US$163 billion. This total is comprised of farmed aquatic animals (76.6 million tonnes, US$157.9 billion), aquatic plants (29.4 million tonnes; US$4.8 billion) and non-food products (41.1 thousand tonnes; US$208.2 million).
The global production level of farmed aquatic animals, often referred to as farmed food fish, was up by only 4 percent in 2015 from 2014, the lowest annual growth rate in the new millennium. As shown in the table below, Americas and Oceania experienced negative growth in food fish aquaculture production in 2015.
The composition of major species groups within farmed aquatic animals varies greatly across the world. In volume terms, finfish farming is the most important type of aquaculture operation on all continents. In 2015, finfish farming accounted for 67.8 percent of total aquaculture output of aquatic animals.
On average, aquaculture supplied 10.42 kg of food fish for human consumption in 2015, which is a 0.28 kg increase from 10.14 kg in 2014. This all-time high consumption figure of farmed fish is based on the 2015 world population data from the Population Division of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
The event will be held during the Asia-Pacific Aquaculture Expo 2017-
