Market-Based Mechanisms – Improving Fisheries Management? - SEAFOOD Ecolabelling: Principles and Practice - page 188

establishment of chains of custody that provides explicit links between supply and
demand is necessary and feasible irrespective of the nature of the trade routes.

9.2 Trends in seafood trade

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has doc-
umented the rapid expansion of international trade in seafood over the past 20
years. The value of global national exports has grown from US$7 billion in 1976
(Josupeit & Franz 2003) to US$58 billion in 2002 (Lem 2004). Net export revenues
for developing countries grew from less than US$4 billion to US$15 billion over
the same period. Although some nations have always been significant traders of
seafood and seafood products, the increase in the past few years has been due to
the rapid expansion of catches in the waters of developing countries and the export
of seafood to developed countries. About 22 million tonnes of seafood entered the
world trade in 1996, which shows an increase of 8 million tonnes since 1976 (Deere
2000).
Dommen (1999) estimates that some 40% of the world seafood now enters inter-
national trade (compared to 10% of meat; Delgado et al . 2003) and the proportion
contributed by developing countries has grown from 43% to 51% over the period
1992 to 2001 (FAO 2007). Most trade is between developed countries and other de-
veloped countries, or between developing countries and developed countries (Deere
2000). In 2001 most (74%) seafood was exported to Japan (23%), the US (17%)
and the EU (34%) (Vannuccini 2002). The trade between developing countries is
dominated (by weight) by fishmeal and fish oil for use in aquaculture.
Aquaculture production has grown spectacularly from 15% of world seafood
production in 1990 to 29% in 2001. The bulk of this increase has occurred in the
People's Republic of China, and the production is dominated by freshwater fish
(Subasinghe et al . 2001). Whilst aquaculture is one of the few primary industries in
many countries that is expanding (and is the main hope for satisfying the growing
demand for seafood), this growth has not been without significant environmental
impacts in some areas (Subasinghe et al . 2001).
Co-incident with the increased trade in seafood has been an alarming deterio-
ration in the state of many of the world's fisheries. Over the past few decades the
FAO (2005a) has documented a gradual increase in the number of fisheries listed
as overfished (currently 17%), and there is concern that many of those that are cur-
rently listed as fully fished (52%) are merely in a state of transition to an overfished
status. As global catches have risen (now 82 million tonnes) so too has the area
of waters fished. In 1980, the high seas (waters outside of the 200 nautical mile
Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) claimed by maritime nations) provided 5% of
the world catch. This grew to 11% in 1990 (Deere 2000), thus creating a variety of
management and enforcement issues that continue to generate concern, especially
in the context of regulating trade.