The seafood industry produced 223.2 million tonnes of aquatic products worldwide in 2022, including 185.4 million tonnes of aquatic animals and 37.8 million tonnes of algae. Aquaculture supplied 130.9 million tonnes, while capture fisheries supplied 92.3 million tonnes. These figures from the FAO SOFIA 2024 report show an industry spanning food production, employment, trade, processing, and resource management.
Contents
- Global production and aquaculture
- Consumption and food supply
- Capture fisheries and sustainability
- Industry value, jobs, and leading countries
- The U.S. seafood market
- U.S. fisheries, aquaculture, and recreation
- Imports, exports, and seafood traceability
Global production and aquaculture
Global fisheries and aquaculture production reached 223.2 million tonnes in 2022, according to FAO SOFIA 2024. Aquatic animals accounted for 185.4 million tonnes, while algae contributed 37.8 million tonnes. Aquaculture alone reached 130.9 million tonnes, including 94.4 million tonnes of aquatic animals.
Aquaculture’s scale makes it central to the industry’s future. FAO reported that aquatic animals from aquaculture represented 51% of total aquatic animal production in 2022. Ten countries produced more than 89.8% of global aquaculture output, indicating that production is concentrated among a relatively small group of national industries.
The global production split in 2022 was:
| Measure | 2022 production |
|---|---|
| Fisheries and aquaculture, total | 223.2 million tonnes |
| Aquatic animals, total | 185.4 million tonnes |
| Algae | 37.8 million tonnes |
| Aquaculture, total | 130.9 million tonnes |
| Aquaculture aquatic animals | 94.4 million tonnes |
| Capture fisheries, total | 92.3 million tonnes |
China accounted for 36% of aquatic-animal production by country in 2022. India accounted for 8%, Indonesia 7%, Viet Nam 5%, and Peru 3%. China was also one of FAO’s top five exporters of aquatic animal products in 2022, while the United States was one of the top five importers.
FAO projected aquatic animal production to rise 10% by 2032, reaching 205 million tonnes. The projection is an estimate for a future period, not a measurement of current output.
Consumption and food supply
Global apparent consumption of aquatic animal foods reached 162.5 million tonnes in 2021, according to FAO SOFIA 2024. Per-capita annual consumption rose to 20.7 kilograms in 2022, up from 9.1 kilograms in 1961. This long-term comparison covers different measurement years and shows the increase in average global aquatic-food consumption over that period.
Direct human consumption accounted for 89% of total aquatic animal production in 2022. In 2021, aquatic foods supplied 15% of animal proteins and 6% of total proteins worldwide. They contributed at least 20% of per-capita protein supply from all animal sources for 3.2 billion people in 2021.
FAO projected apparent consumption to increase 12% by 2032, reaching 21.3 kilograms per person. Looking farther ahead, maintaining 2022 per-capita consumption through 2050 would require an additional 36 million tonnes of supply. FAO described that scenario as a 22% increase in aquatic-animal food supply.
The figures combine production, trade, and food-balance concepts, so they should not be treated as interchangeable measures. Apparent consumption is a supply-based estimate, while per-capita consumption expresses an average across a population.
Capture fisheries and sustainability
Capture fisheries produced 92.3 million tonnes in 2022. Marine capture fisheries accounted for 81 million tonnes, and inland capture fisheries accounted for 11.3 million tonnes. Together, these figures describe the wild-capture portion of global aquatic-animal production.
FAO SOFIA 2024 reported that 62.3% of marine stocks were fished within biologically sustainable levels in 2021. When weighted by production, however, 76.9% of 2021 landings from FAO-monitored stocks came from biologically sustainable stocks. The two percentages use different bases: one describes stocks, while the other weights results by the amount landed.
This distinction matters when interpreting seafood sustainability statistics. A stock-level percentage gives each monitored stock a role in the calculation, while a production-weighted percentage gives greater influence to stocks that account for more landings. Neither figure describes every fishery worldwide; the reported measure concerns FAO-monitored stocks.
Industry value, jobs, and leading countries
FAO estimated the total first-sale value of fisheries and aquaculture production at $472 billion in 2022. Aquaculture production represented an estimated $313 billion of that first-sale value. First-sale value refers to the value at the initial sale rather than the final retail value paid by consumers.
The primary fisheries and aquaculture sector employed 61.8 million people in 2022. Women represented 24% of the overall workforce and 62% of the processing subsector workforce. The difference highlights the importance of separating the primary sector from processing when comparing workforce statistics.
Employment was concentrated geographically. Asia accounted for 85% of fisheries and aquaculture jobs in 2022. Africa accounted for 10%, Latin America and the Caribbean for 4%, and Europe, Oceania, and Northern America combined for 1%.
The major country shares of aquatic-animal production were:
| Country | Share of 2022 aquatic-animal production |
|---|---|
| China | 36% |
| India | 8% |
| Indonesia | 7% |
| Viet Nam | 5% |
| Peru | 3% |
These are country shares of aquatic-animal production, not shares of the entire fisheries and aquaculture economy, employment, trade, or first-sale value.
The U.S. seafood market
The United States consumed 20.5 pounds of seafood per person in 2021, according to the USDA Economic Research Service Chart of Note published in 2024. Per-capita U.S. seafood consumption grew 30% over the previous three decades. Fresh and frozen seafood represented about 63% of per-capita consumption in 1990 and almost 80% in 2021. Canned seafood’s share declined from 35% in 1990 to 18% in 2021.
The USDA estimated that about 80% of seafood consumed in the United States came from imports. U.S. seafood imports exceeded exports by $20.3 billion in 2023. In inflation-adjusted terms, imports expanded about 87% from 1995 to 2023, while exports dropped about 23% over the same period. The United States ranked 10th globally in seafood exports in 2022.
NOAA Fisheries’ 2023 Fisheries of the United States report measured 6.3 billion pounds of U.S. edible seafood imports and 2.5 billion pounds of edible seafood exports in 2023. NOAA estimated U.S. per-capita seafood consumption at 19.1 pounds in 2023 and estimated that 80% of seafood eaten by Americans came from foreign imports.
The USDA and NOAA figures use different reporting periods and methodologies: the USDA figure is for 2021, while the NOAA consumption estimate is for 2023. They should be read as separate estimates rather than combined into a single trend calculation.
U.S. fisheries, aquaculture, and recreation
U.S. marine and freshwater farmers produced 688 million pounds of seafood in 2023, valued at $1.3 billion, according to NOAA Fisheries. Aquaculture represented 25% of the value of U.S. seafood products. Domestic production of edible fishery products was valued at $12 billion, while industrial fishery products were valued at $745.5 million.
U.S. commercial fishermen landed 8.4 billion pounds of seafood valued at $5.1 billion in 2023. The North Pacific accounted for 62.5% of commercial seafood landings, followed by the Gulf of America at 15%, the Pacific at 10.2%, the Mid-Atlantic at 5.9%, New England at 4.9%, the South Atlantic at 1.2%, and the Western Pacific at 0.3%.
Dutch Harbor, Alaska, was the leading U.S. seafood port by volume for the 26th consecutive year in 2023. New Bedford, Massachusetts, was the leading port by catch value for the 23rd consecutive year.
Recreational fishing was also a major source of activity. U.S. anglers took more than 204 million saltwater fishing trips and caught an estimated 1.1 billion fish in 2023. They released 65% of the fish caught. The South Atlantic accounted for 36.5% of saltwater fishing trips, the Gulf of America 29.4%, the Mid-Atlantic 22.6%, New England 8.1%, the Western Pacific 2.1%, the Pacific 1%, and the North Pacific 0.4%.
Yellowfin tuna was the top harvested recreational species by weight. Scup was the top harvested species by number of fish, and Atlantic croaker was the top species by total catch, including harvested and released fish.
Marine aquaculture included oysters, clams, Atlantic salmon, red drum, and shrimp among the top five species reported by NOAA in 2023. The Atlantic region accounted for 46% of marine shellfish aquaculture value and 39% of volume. The Gulf of America accounted for 31% of value and 44% of volume, while the Pacific accounted for 23% of value and 17% of volume.
Imports, exports, and seafood traceability
NOAA’s Seafood Import Monitoring Program, or SIMP, covered 773,238,048 kilograms of imports valued at $6,432,182,862 in fiscal year 2023. SIMP-covered imports represented about 32% of all U.S. seafood-import volume and about 30% of import value in that fiscal year.
NOAA reported that total seafood imports fell from 4.8 billion kilograms in fiscal year 2022 to 2.4 billion kilograms in fiscal year 2023, while total import value fell from about $25 billion to about $22 billion. SIMP-covered imports fell from 1.2 billion kilograms to 773 million kilograms, and from about $7.8 billion to about $6.4 billion.
Shrimp and tuna together accounted for roughly 75% of SIMP product quantity and value in fiscal year 2023. The program recorded 146,294 entries that included SIMP Harmonized Tariff Schedule codes; 130,710 used at least one SIMP-listed species three-alpha code and required full reporting. Approximately 12,000 import entries fell under SIMP purview each month.
NOAA conducted 106 physical inspections of commercial SIMP imports in fiscal year 2023, with nearly 60% taking place in the Pacific Islands and Long Beach, California. About 14% of 1,722 active International Fisheries Trade Permit holders imported SIMP products and were audited that year. Since implementation, NOAA had audited 40% of IFTP holders that imported seafood subject to SIMP.
Among 130,710 full-reporting entries, 329 were selected for audit in fiscal year 2023, an approximately 0.25% selection rate. Since implementation, 732,731 entries had been subject to SIMP reporting and 3,901 had been selected for audit, equal to about 0.53%.
About 56% of audited SIMP filings were noncompliant in fiscal year 2023. Incomplete chain of custody appeared in about 56% of noncompliant audits, while harvest-weight misreporting appeared in about 62%. Declared aquaculture fisheries had a 31% noncompliance rate, compared with 63% for declared small-vessel harvests and 71% for declared wild-capture fisheries.
Audit results varied by species and declaration. Tuna had a 70% noncompliance rate among species groups with more than 10 completed audits, based on 116 completed cases. Shrimp had a 29% rate across 95 completed audits, and Atlantic cod had 45 completed audits. Atlantic blue crab, Pacific cod, and red king crab audits were each 100% noncompliant in the reported FY 2023 results.
NOAA reported noncompliance rates of 80% for Japan-declared harvests, 70% for Mexico-declared harvests, 100% for Venezuela-declared harvests, and 79% for international-waters declarations. Indonesia-declared harvests had an 86% harvest-weight error rate among the noted noncompliant audits; the corresponding rates were 80% for India and 77% for Mexico.
NOAA’s forensic laboratory analyzed more than 300 tissue samples from SIMP imports in fiscal year 2023. The seizure described in the FY 2023 SIMP report totaled nearly 10 tons of seafood products.