Medidas de Gestao das Pescarias Marinhas e Aquicultura 2019 The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2018 | Page 64

PART 1 WORLD REVIEW
FIGURE 17
UTILIZATION OF WORLD FISHERIES PRODUCTION, 1962–2016
180
150
120
90
60
30
0
1962
1966
1970
Non-food purposes
1974
1978
1982
Prepared or preserved
1986
Cured
The global averages mask significant differences
in the utilization of fish and, more significantly,
processing methods among regions and countries
and even within countries. Latin American
countries produce the highest percentage of
fishmeal. In Europe and North America, fish in
frozen and prepared and preser ved forms
represents more than two-thirds of the
production of fish used for human consumption.
In Africa, the proportion of cured fish is higher
than the world average. In Africa and Asia, a
large amount of production is commercialized in
live or fresh form. Live fish is principally
appreciated in eastern and southeastern Asia
(especially by the Chinese population) and in
niche markets in other countries, mainly among
immigrant Asian communities.
Commercialization of live fish has grown in
recent years as a result of technological
developments, improved logistics and increased
demand. Systems for transporting live fish range
from simple artisanal systems of plastic bags with
an atmosphere supersaturated with ox ygen, to
specially designed or modified tanks and
containers, and on to sophisticated systems
1990
Frozen
1994
1998
2002
2006
2010
2014
Live, fresh or chilled
installed in trucks and other vehicles that
reg ulate temperature, filter and recycle water,
and add ox ygen. Nevertheless, marketing and
transportation of live fish can be challenging, as
they are often subject to stringent health
reg ulations, qualit y standards and animal welfare
requirements (in the European Union, for
example). In China and some Southeast Asian
countries, live fish have been traded and handled
for more than 3 000 years; practices are based on
tradition and are not formally reg ulated.
Major improvements in processing as well as in
refrigeration, ice-making and transportation have
allowed increasing commercialization and
distribution of fish in a greater variet y of product
forms in the past few decades. For example, in
developing countries growth has been seen in the
share of production destined for human
consumption that is utilized in frozen form (from
3 percent in the 1960s to 8 percent in the 1980s
and 26 percent in 2016) and in prepared or
preser ved form (from 4 percent in the 1960s to
9 percent in 2016) (Figure 18). However, developing
countries still mainly use fish in live or fresh
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