DESCRIPTION

Excluding aquatic plants, total world fisheries and aquaculture production showed a 41 percent growth in the 2000–2019 period, reaching 178 million tonnes in 2019, slightly below the record
179 million tonnes of 2018. This represents an overall expansion of 52 million tonnes compared
to 2000. The total first sale value of the 2019 production is estimated at USD 406 billion. Due to the expansion of aquaculture production, freshwater fish experienced major growth, more than doubling (+137 percent) between 2000 and 2019, going from about 25 million tonnes in 2000 (19 percent of the total) to 58 million tonnes in 2019.

At the global level, after several decades of sustained growth, capture fisheries production
has been rather stable at around 90 million tonnes since the early 1990s, with some inter-annual fluctuations in the range of 3 to 6 million tonnes. These fluctuations have been mainly determined by variations in catches of anchoveta in South America, particularly affected by climatic change variability, but they also depended on the productivity of ecosystems, fishing intensity management and fish stock.

Source: WORLD FOOD AND AGRICULTURE STATISTICAL YEARBOOK 2021