Global seafood consumption footprint

Abstract

To ensure food security and nutritional quality for a growing world population in the face of climate change, stagnant capture fisheries production, increasing aquaculture production and competition for natural resources, countries must be accountable for what they consume rather than what they produce. To investigate the sustainability of seafood consumption, we propose a methodology to examine the impact of seafood supply chains across national boundaries: the seafood consumption footprint. The seafood consumption footprint is expressed as the biomass of domestic and imported seafood production required to satisfy national seafood consumption, and is estimated using a multiregional input output model. Thus, we reconstruct for the first time the global fish biomass flows in national supply chains to estimate consumption footprints at the global, country and sector levels (capture fisheries, aquaculture, distribution and processing, and reduction into fishmeal and fish oil) taking into account the biomass supply from beyond national borders.

Projected declines in global DHA availability for human consumption as a result of global warming

“…North America and most of Western Europe fall under the threshold for sufficient per capita DHA by the year 2100, but international trade may be able to compensate for this decline, assuming current trading patterns continue in the future. Today, 78% of seafood products are sold in markets influenced by international trade competition (Tveterås et al 2012), with Latin America, Oceania, Africa, and Asia net exporters of fish and fisheries products, while Europe and North America are net importers and consume significantly more fish than they produce (FAO 2016;Guillen et al 2019).…”

Fisheries Volume 45 Number 4 April 2020

“…The seafood consumption footprint of a country, for which a country should be held accountable, is based upon its domestic seafood production and international trade (Guillen et al 2018 ). Especially for countries characterized by a trade defi cit, sustainability of consumption is dependent upon production beyond national borders and therefore vulnerable to unsustainable practices on a global scale (Guillen et al 2018 ).…”

“…The seafood consumption footprint of a country, for which a country should be held accountable, is based upon its domestic seafood production and international trade (Guillen et al 2018 ). Especially for countries characterized by a trade defi cit, sustainability of consumption is dependent upon production beyond national borders and therefore vulnerable to unsustainable practices on a global scale (Guillen et al 2018 ). Food security is a fl exible concept that encompasses food availability, access, utilization, and stability, the latter accounting for the risks of losing access to food in consequence of sudden transient shocks such as environmental disasters, diseases, and pollution.…”

“…The concept of food security conveys important messages regarding reliance upon international trade. For instance, Guillen et al ( 2018 ) stressed that increasing income power within developing nations may impose higher demand on seafood, leading to higher prices and decreasing benefi ts to seafood importing countries, thus promoting shifts in current seafood trading. McClanahan et al ( 2013 ) state that sensitivity (of countries, communities) is measured by the degree of human dependence on marine resources for food, revenue and income and is directly linked to "vulnerability."…”

Indonesian aquaculture futures—identifying interventions for reducing environmental impacts

“…The Indonesian Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (KKP/MMAF) has set ambitious growth targets for most aquaculture species of around 8.5% growth per annum up to 2030 (IDH 2018), to satisfy national demand and increase exports (Directorate General of Aquaculture 2017). This is while Indonesia is already the third largest seafood consuming nation, after China and Japan (Guillen et al 2019), and fourth largest exporter of shrimp, after India, Ecuador, and Argentina (comtrade.un.org accessed 12- Sep-2019). At present, over 80% of capture fisheries and 95% of aquaculture production in Indonesia is consumed domestically (Belton et al 2017).…”