ST. PETERSBURG, September 19. /TASS/. Monetary volumes of international trade in fish, seafood, and other bio-resources by the end of 2024 may exceed the 2022 record totaling $195 bln, Director of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) Russia Liaison Office Oleg Kobyakov told TASS.
"The volume of global trade in aquatic bioresources reached a record $195 bln in 2022. In our opinion, this record will be broken this year. Currently, the share of trade in fish and seafood is about 9.1% of the total volume of trade in all agricultural products," he said.
After 2022, the volume of global trade in seafood declined due to the disruption of the established system of supply chains and other factors, so the decline in 2023 should be compensated by the beginning of 2025, and the market will recover faster than expected due to the establishment of new supply chains and increased consumption of fish products in large markets such as China. Another growth driver is the use of previously less popular bioresources, such as algae, as well as the introduction of technologies for deeper processing of fish, allowing for the consumption of parts of the product that were previously simply discarded.
Oleg Kobyakov noted that one of the most important factors in ensuring food security and increasing the volume of fish supply to markets is the fight against production losses and product spoilage due to improper storage. According to him, the global fishing industry loses about 30% of the usable product due to imperfect processing and storage technologies. The FAO aims to halve these losses by 2030 by promoting the adoption of economical freezing and rapid processing technologies.
"If we can cut losses in half, from 30% to 15%, we will be able to feed tens of millions more people with a complete food protein. This is the most important problem that needs to be solved," he emphasized.
The situation with minimizing production losses is improving in general, and the global industry can achieve the stated goal by 2030, which will significantly boost the market development, since along with the reduction in the volume of lost products, inefficient costs for labor, fuel will also decrease.
Another factor contributing to the improvement of the situation is the reduction of illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing. According to Kobyakov, in recent years it has been possible to strengthen the control and regulation of fishing in certain regions, which has reduced the loss of bio-resources due to illegal fishing.