GENEVA: Demand for sustainable seafood has allowed the market for certified fish and shellfish to burgeon, but the world’s biggest seafood producer Asia is lagging far behind, a report said Wednesday.
Last year, 23 million metric tonnes of seafood certified as sustainable was sold worldwide to the tune of $11.5 billion (10 billion euros), accounting for 14 percent of global production, according to a study published by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD).
That marks a dramatic rise from just a decade earlier, when only 500,000 metric tonnes, or 0.5 percent of the global seafood production, was considered sustainable, the Canadian non-profit research group said.
Wednesday’s report, which studied the performance of the nine most common sustainability certification schemes, including Marine Stewardship Council and Friends of the Sea, showed that certified seafood production grew 35 percent annually over the past decade, nearly 10 times faster than conventional seafood production over the same period.
Last year, 23 million metric tonnes of seafood certified as sustainable was sold worldwide to the tune of $11.5 billion (10 billion euros), accounting for 14 percent of global production, according to a study published by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD).
That marks a dramatic rise from just a decade earlier, when only 500,000 metric tonnes, or 0.5 percent of the global seafood production, was considered sustainable, the Canadian non-profit research group said.
Wednesday’s report, which studied the performance of the nine most common sustainability certification schemes, including Marine Stewardship Council and Friends of the Sea, showed that certified seafood production grew 35 percent annually over the past decade, nearly 10 times faster than conventional seafood production over the same period.
