"A tremendous amount of tilapia has been produced in the past few years," says IAF associate editor Professor Kristen Rana in a presentation to the Aquaculture Forum 'Fish in Focus' at EuroTier 2012, Hanover, Germany, yesterday afternoon when talking about the growing importance of tilapia as a food product globally.
In 2010 3.5 million tonnes of tilapia were produced worldwide with 20 countries producing over 10,000 tonnes each.
Who are the global players in tilapia production? he asks.
China is growing more than half the world's production of tilapia. In 2009 it produced about 400,000 tonnes with 250,00 tonnes of that for export markets, such as the USA, he told show visitors interested in aquaculture. Mexico, surprisingly was another large importer of Chinese tilapia.
"In the past few years China's exports to the European market and to Russia have increased dramatically. As a result, the fish is becoming accepted in European much faster than people realise. There is now an opportunity to grow tilapia in countries such as Germany. They are even being farmed now in Siberia. Tilapia is becoming more popular," he added.
Professor Rana says some 19,000 tonnes of tilapia is being imported into the EU each year alone. Another country that is important significant quantities of tilapia is Israel which use to be a tilapia producer but now can't compete and imports 6,000 tonnes a year from China.
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