Aquaculture Certification - SEAFOOD Ecolabelling: Principles and Practice - page 112

5.4 Economic pressure

The rapid growth of the aquaculture industry has stimulated criticism in some
circles, with influential analysts questioning the merits of farming high-priced,
carnivorous species, such as shrimp and salmon. Naylor et al. (2000) reviewed
the effects of aquaculture on world fish supplies and challenged the assumption
that aquaculture adds to net fish supply, noting that some important farmed species
consume fishmeal that is itself derived from the output of wild fisheries (see the
discussion of the fishmeal issue below). They urged the aquaculture industry to
adopt more ecologically sound management practices and called for coordinated
action to reduce the negative external costs generated by farming systems. Key parts
of this analysis are undoubtedly true and the aquaculture industry must redouble
its efforts to drive down external costs and to increase net production of fish and
shellfish. Nonetheless, aquaculture should not be judged only for its impact on world
fish supplies - it needs to be viewed in terms of its overall economic impact on
society and its local impacts and benefits for communities. Aquaculture's opponents
readily adopt the terminology of economic appraisal when they focus on negative
external costs but they typically ignore the other side of the analysis - positive
external benefits. These benefits are commonly significant and include:

investment and wealth generation in some of the poorest parts of the world;

consumer benefits from improved supply and downward pressure on prices; and

reducing the pressure on, and the negative impacts of, some important wild
fisheries (although this effect may be masked by increasing consumer demand
for fishery products).

International trade in farmed seafood provides good examples of the benefits of
globalisation, with trade in products like frozen shrimp transferring wealth from
consumers in rich nations to producers in poor nations. Tropical countries generally
have a comparative advantage in the production of tropical aquaculture products,
so it is in their economic interests to exploit this advantage. However, in poor
countries the production of high-value export crops like shrimp rarely increases
the local availability of seafood. But even in this kind of setting aquaculture is still
beneficial because of its ability to raise incomes and reduce poverty. And history
has clearly demonstrated that poverty reduction is the most reliable foundation
for reducing hunger and building food security (Baghwati 2004, Wolf 2005). In
addition, although it does not guarantee success, raising incomes contributes to the
potential for strong environmental stewardship, with economic vitality being one
of the determinants of a nation's environmental performance (Esty et al. 2005).
The power of aquaculture output to depress market prices, even against a back-
drop of increased demand for seafood, is well illustrated by examples from Europe.
Rapid saturation of the seabream ( Sparus aurata ) market in the 1990s led to a
50% fall in price in 5 years; and an increasing output of Atlantic salmon led to