Fish food system

China’s role in the global food system has expanded immensely in recent years. In the seafood sector, it is now the largest consumer of seafood products in the world, making the Chinese market highly significant for global fisheries. Drawing on ethnographic- and interview-based research in the largest seafood market in Beijing, this paper analyzes the social context of Chinese consumption and trade.

Climate change in Pacific Island countries and territories (PICTs) is projected to have significant impacts, including rising sea-levels, more violent tropical cyclones and droughts. Fish stocks in the tropical regions of the Pacific are expected to be directly affected by any changes that may occur in the ocean’s ecosystem.

This is a poster presentation on WorldFish Research in Fish Feeds and Nutrition at the 18th International Symposium on Fish Nutrition and Feeding (ISFNF 2018), Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, June 3rd-7th, 2018. (Poster number 2.46)

Over the years, aquaculture has developed as one of the fastest growing food production sectors in Nepal. However, local fish supplies have been extremely inadequate to meet the ever increasing demand in the country. Nepal imports substantial quantities of fish and fish products from India, Bangladesh, Thailand, and elsewhere.

Increase in demand of fish from Lake Victoria region has created gaps in local fish supplies and this raises concern since there are reports of limited animal-source food consumption plus protein and micronutrients deficiencies in this region. To fill the gap, less-preferred pelagic fish species such as Mukene (Rastreneobola argentea) and by-products from filleting Nile perch (Lates niloticus), which were commonly used for animal feeds, are increasingly being minimally processed and marketed for direct human consumption.

Under the Regional Programme Fisheries and HIV/AIDS in Africa, implemented by the WorldFish Center in collaboration with FAO, this paper is the second in a series of papers that have been generated from reviewing literature on trends in consumption and processing of low-value fish products marketed in the Lake Victoria region. The papers fall under the programme’s research component in Uganda, analyzing nutritive quality and post-harvest activities in ‘low value’ fish market chains around Lake Victoria, focusing on Mukono District, Uganda.

This study was funded through the USAID-supported Coral Triangle Support Partnership (CTSP). This study provides an insight into the changing demand for fish in the Solomon Islands over the next 20 years. It supports US CTI Indicator 3 — “Number of policies, laws, agreements, or regulations promoting sustainable natural resource management and conservation that are implemented as a result of USG assistance”.

Hunger and malnutrition are the world’s most devastating problems and are inextricably linked to poverty. A total of 842 million people in 2011-13, or around one in eight people in the world, were estimated to be suffering from chronic hunger, regularly not getting enough food to conduct an active life (FAO, IFAD and WFP 2013).

Egypt’s aquaculture production (921,585 tonnes in 2010) is by far the largest of any African country. The aquaculture sector, dominated by semi-intensive pond production of tilapia, makes a significant contribution to income, employment creation and food and nutrition security in the country, all of which are national priority areas given low per capita income levels, rising population, worsening food and nutrition security indicators, and official unemployment levels which have remained at around 10% for the last ten years.

The CGIAR Research Program on Aquatic Agricultural Systems (AAS) is collaborating with partners to develop and implement a foresight-based engagement with diverse stakeholders linked to aquatic agricultural systems. The program’s aim is to understand the implications of current drivers of change for fish agri-food systems, and consequently food and nutrition security, in Africa, Asia and the Pacific.