UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : FAO - Press Conference: Media launch of the FAO State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2024

[Other language spoken]

So I think we will start the press conference.

Good afternoon and thank you for joining the FAO press conference at the UN office at Geneva.

Today's press conference will cover the launch of FA OS flagship report, The State of World Fisheries and Agriculture 2004, also known as the Sofia Report.

Sofia provides A comprehensive analysis of of the global and regional status and trends in fisheries and aquaculture.

This year the Sofia Report will be showcased in Costa Rica during the **** **** profile event on ocean action Immersed in Change coinciding with World Ocean Day, which is on 8th June.

This Saturday.

Today we have with us Doctor Manuel Barange, the FAO Assistant Director General and the Director of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Division connecting from Costa Rica.

Please note that this press conference is under embargo and the embargo will be lifted on 7 June, 8:00 PM Central European Summer time.

So please respect the embargo And without further ado, I would like to invite Doctor Manuel Barange to the floor.

Over to you.

Thank you very much.

Good afternoon to all of you in Geneva.

Good morning to those of us here in Costa Rica, and thank you for your presence at this conference that has already been introduced.

Just to know that the speaking points that I will be using today are available to any journalist if you want to use them.

Let me start first to mention that this is only the second time that the Sofia report has been launched outside airfield.

It is published every two years and it is highly awaited.

I will start with the messages.

I'll have 7 messages on the highlights of Sofia.

The first one is that global fisheries and aquaculture production has reached an all time **** of 223 million tonnes in 2022.

2022 is the year that Sophia focuses on.

This production comprises 185,000,000 tonnes of aquatic animals and 38 million tonnes of algae.

Perhaps an even more striking result, and perhaps one of the headlines of Sophia 2024, is that for the first time in history, global agriculture production of animal species surpassed fisheries production with a record 94.4 million tonnes of aquatic animal production, almost 8% higher than two years ago.

Capture fisheries production, on the other hand, has remained very stable at around 90 to 95,000,000 tonnes since the mid 1990s.

These numbers demonstrate the potential for agriculture to feed a growing world population, and we'll get back to that in a moment.

The second message of Sofia is that, as reflected in many recent global dialogues, the contributions of aquatic food systems to global food security and nutrition keeps growing.

Almost 90% of aquatic animal production is currently used for direct human consumption, and this results in a record per capita consumption of 20.7 kilogrammes of aquatic animal foods per person in 2022.

In fact, since 1961, this per capita consumption rate of aquatic animals has been growing at twice the rate of population growth, thus making net contributions to our nutritional outcomes.

Aquatic animal production, some of it is not used for direct human consumption and is largely diverted to produce fish meal and fish oil for animal feeds.

But this volume of aquatic animal production not used for direct humans has actually been decreasing over time.

It was a record 30 million tonnes in 1994 and it is now 17,000,000 tonnes.

Thus, aquaculture growth has not increased the need to use more marine ingredients as feed, and that is thanks to improved feed formulations and also the growing use of byproducts, fish byproducts in the production of fish meal.

The third message in Sophia 2024 is that Asia was a source of 91% of all agriculture production of aquatic animals, with, of course, very significantly lower volumes in other regions.

However, above average growth rates of aquaculture have been observed in Africa and Latin America about 8% since the turn of the century compared to below average growth in Europe and North America over the same.

So the take home message here is that agriculture production is still dominated by a small number of countries, but many are making strides to use this untapped resource for their aquatic food needs.

May I perhaps mention that Africa, for example, is currently a net importer of aquatic foods?

The 4th message of Sophia is Despite that despite aquaculture growth, marine capture fisheries remained vital for food, for livelihoods and for sustainable development.

However, the sustainability of marine fisheries is a continued source of concern.

62.3% of marine stocks are currently fish within biological levels and this is a 2.3% deterioration deterioration from the last assessment that we conducted 2 years ago and this continues an alarming trend.

This percentage however treats all stocks equally regardless of their abundance and the volume of their catch.

If we combine this with their production values, we are we are allowed to estimate that approximately 77% of all the marine fisheries landings are from biologically sustainable stocks.

Sophia breaks down this indices between regions and species group, but I think it is worth noting that 80% of the top ten species are sustainably exploited.

And that progress is also seen, for example, among the tuner stocks now approaching 90% levels of sustainability.

And this is a remarkable improvement in the last decade.

So what these figures indicate collectively, and this is consistent with academic analysis, is that larger commercial fish stocks are actually better managed and that this management is producing positive results.

This evidence is the main reason why FA OS Blue Transformation Vision calls for 100% of fish stocks to be placed under effective management, because management works and it is the only tool we have to reverse and sustainable practises.

Our fifth message today is that aquatic food production is not only crucial for food security and for nutrition, but also for livelihoods.

The sector employs 62 million people directly and if we add those involved in the full value chain of aquatic foods and the dependents, about 600 million people depend on the sector for their livelihood, the large majority in low to medium income countries.

Our estimates are the only 24% of those employed in the primary sector are women, but this increases to 62% for post harvest workers, highlighting the need for gender transformative approaches to understand the sector and to achieve equality and equity.

The 6th message of Sophia refers to the importance of fisheries for local economies with record first sale value of aquatic products in 2022 of 472 billion U.S.

[Other language spoken]

Some 230 States and territories are active in the international trade of aquatic products, generating a record export volume in 2022 of 192 billion U.S.

[Other language spoken]

This is a 19% increase compared to pre COVID times, which reflects a very robust sector recovery from the pandemic.

It is perhaps worth noting that the net benefits of the trade in aquatic products for low and middle income countries exceeds the net benefits obtained from the trade of all other agricultural commodities combined.

Our 7th and final message is a reflection on the expected rise in demand for aquatic products fueled by economic development and of course, population increase.

Based on our model projections, the sector will grow a further 10% by 2032.

This is mostly thanks to aquaculture.

By 2050, we will grow our population to 9.7 billion people and this will have significant implications for the supply and the demand of food.

All food systems, including aquatic foods, will need to contribute to this challenge.

For example, just to ensure that the consumption of aquatic foods in 2050 is maintained at current per capita levels, the supply globally will have to grow by 22% and in Africa, a 74% growth in supply will be needed by 2050.

Just to keep up with population growth if we want to keep our current consumption rates.

That this is a major challenge and requests and requires major investments and transformations in the sector.

This highlights the need for to achieve blue transformation, which is what Sophia 2024 calls for, for a world where aquatic foods play a more significant role in ending hunger and poverty, but with further growth, is environmentally sustainable, socially equitable and targets food security and nutrition needs first.

In conclusion, we hope that Sofia 2024 will fulfil the expectations of the series as a key source of carefully collated, curated and analysed data and information.

The messages are primarily to assist members in the identification of challenges as well in the exploration of solutions and strategies to better the sector and it's outcomes.

And with that, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for your attention.

I will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you very much, Doctor Manuel Barangie, for your comprehensive overview of the Sofia report.

We will now open the floor for questions.

We will start with questions in the room and please state your organisation and name before asking your questions.

So we will move on to the platform on Zoom.

Would there be any journalist?

OK, Christian, the floor is yours.

[Other language spoken]

I just had a couple of questions as well and I'll just one, just how significant is this sort of the fact that the.

The the the.

The fish farming, the aquaculture has overtaken the, the, the, the, the traditional farming.

But I mean, how, how significant is that it?

Has it grown faster than you would expected?

And then a second question on the issue of fish stocks around the world that have been overfished.

You said that there were, there was some improvement, but the global figure was still 2.3% worse than two years ago.

And it seems to me since the 1970s, it's always been our kind of getting worse.

When do you expect that, Do you expect that figure to, to, to improve two years down the line?

You talked about the need for the management of the fish stocks.

Do you, do you see enough movement in this area to be hopeful that this is a problem that can be overcome?

Thank you very much.

[Other language spoken]

Shall I respond to the question 1 by 1?

[Other language spoken]

All right.

Thank you for this question.

It's very, very relevant.

So first on the issue of agriculture growth, aquaculture has been growing for several decades now.

It's the fastest growing food production system for the last five decades.

So it's not a surprise that eventually it overtakes capture fisheries from the turn of the century.

It has grown at 5% per year globally.

So there's 23 years of growing at 5%.

So this is very relevant for a number of reasons.

First of all, because it's allows a better access of aquatic products for consumers without increasing pressure on marine resources.

I mentioned that capture fisheries at global level has remained very stable over the last 30 years.

And that is logical because it's a natural resource that depends on the on, on on nature's fluctuations and there is a limit to how much nature can produce.

But aquaculture allows us then to bring **** quality proteins and **** quality micronutrients for a growing population without having more impact on the marine environment.

It is also a great opportunity, which is why we want to highlight it because as I mentioned, 91% of aquaculture happens in Asia and that means that there there's great interest in many other regions to develop aquaculture as well, not just for food, but also for livelihoods.

And may I say that 60% of aquaculture is actually inland aquaculture.

It's not on on seas, it's not on the coastlines, it's actually inland in lakes and rivers, in ponds.

So there is an opportunity to diversify the production of aquatic foods in that way.

The with respect to the to fisheries, what I will say is that the issue of sustainability is of great concern to us.

The the global figures as you, as you reflected are not good.

We do have very good examples of progress in many regions, the Northeast Atlantic, for example, the European, European Atlantic Waters sustainability has gone from 23% sustainable stocks to 75% sustainable stocks in just 20 years.

And countries like the US, 93% of the stocks are sustainably exploited.

I mentioned a couple of other examples in my speech.

So they are very good examples of progress and but we that means that there are many other examples where progress is not happening or is not happening fast enough.

And the failures of sustainability are failures of governance.

They are multifaceted.

They have to be understood in all this complexity.

It requires policies, it requires institutions, it requires scientific capacity, it requires political will.

And we work with countries 1 by 1 and collectively in improving their data collection systems, in helping them develop the institutions and their and their management systems.

But it is not something that happens fast and it has to be taken very seriously if we we don't want to see these deterioration to continue.

[Other language spoken]

Hope that clarified your question Crispian.

Umm, do we have any follow up questions or any additional?

Looking at the Zoom umm, so I guess I don't see any further questions from the journalist.

So umm, please let us know if you have any follow-ups or interview request.

We'll be very happy to facilitate UMM to support your reporting.

With this, we will conclude the FAO press conference today and we wish you a oh, I see, I see a hand up from Doctor Emmanuel.

Baranjit, would you like to add one last comment?

[Other language spoken]

Just as there's no other question, I just wanted to mention that one element that is very important on aquatic foods that is unique to to the sector is the enormous diversity that relies on.

So in our databases, we have 3400 species that we use in capture fisheries at some level, but we also have over 730 species that we culture in, in aquaculture systems.

This diversity is unique in in the food systems sectors and also makes aquatic foods much more flexible and adaptable, for example, to climate change, which has not been mentioned in my my statement.

But of course we are well aware of and Sophia discusses this at length.

So the biodiversity of aquatic food systems is actually part of the success and part of the expectations placed on it.

[Other language spoken]

All right.

Thank you very much for the very last comments.

Doctor Manuel Baranje, very important information.

So, so yes, as mentioned earlier, please let us know if you have any follow up requests or interview requests as well.

We will be very happy to facilitate.

And with this, we will conclude the FAO press conference today.

We wish you a lovely afternoon and thank you very much.

FAO - Press Conference: Media launch of the FAO State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2024 - 06 June 2024