FAO: Aquaculture to grow faster than expected in next decade

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  From WATTAgNet:
  The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has found in a study that aquaculture likely will grow more than expected in the next decade, improving nutrition for millions of people, especially in Asia and Africa.
  Increased investment in the aquaculture sector will help boost farmed-fish production by up to 4.14 percent per year through 2022, much greater than the 2.54 percent growth forecast this year in a joint report by FAO and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
  Productivity-enhancing technologies including water use, breeding, hatchery practices and feedstuff innovation can help fish farmers in places like Asia and Africa keep up with demand. The report found that Africa should see growth of more than 5 percent per year, the fastest in the world.
  Aquaculture is a young industry compared with livestock farming and has grown from virtually nothing in 1950 and to a record production of 66.5 million tons in 2012, up almost 30-fold since 1970. About 50 percent of the $127 billion in global fish exports in 2011 came from developing countries, which receive more net revenue from the fish trade than from their exports of tea, rice, cocoa and coffee combined, the report said.
  Global per capita fish consumption increased from 9.9 kilograms in 1970 to 19.1 kilograms in 2012, although rates vary substantially by and within regions. Africa, Latin America and the Near East have consumption levels of around half the global rate, while Asia, Europe and North America all have rates of about 21 kilograms per capita.