Welfare and poverty impacts of aquaculture growth

Aquaculture is one of the world’s fastest growing food-producing sectors, and its share in global fish consumption by humans is projected to grow to more than 60 percent by 2030 (FAO 2014). This growth is remarkable given that the sector was almost nonexistent in the 1950s and its share in total fish production remained below 20 percent until the early 1990s. The underlying implications of this trend are considered to be so significant that they are now commonly termed a “Blue Revolution,†and there are good reasons for using the term. Aquaculture holds the promise of meeting most of the world’s fish demand without ruining the environment (Economist 2003; Sachs 2007); aquaculture also will be able to help reduce poverty while improving food security and nutritional well-being.1 If aquaculture had stopped growing in 1980—that is, if growth in the world’s fish supply depended only on marine and inland capture fisheries—per capita annual fish availability in 2013 would have been only 14.0 kilograms, which is 17 percent lower than the availability in 1980 and about half of the actual availability of 26.8 kilograms in 2013. The consequences of such a scenario are easy to imagine: higher prices, lower consumption, and far greater pressure on marine and inland capture fisheries. The adverse consequences would have been particularly severe for the developing countries of Asia, where fish is an important part of the diet and where fish production and marketing provide the livelihoods for millions of poor households.