Production increases for key species expected to ease demand pressure on prices in 2017

摘要

After a10 percent drop in the total value of international seafood trade from 2014 to 2015, the projected 2016 figure of US$141.6 billion traded represents a partial recovery of 6.6 percent, with total traded volume remaining approximately constant across all three years at 60-60.5 million tonnes (live weight). However, the fundamental factors behind the apparent decline and subsequent recovery in value were largely different in 2015 and 2016. In 2015, the robust economic performance of the US economy, contrasting with sluggish growth in many other parts of the world, drove up the value of the US dollar versus a broad range of currencies and pushed down the US dollar value of trade conducted in those currencies. Whereas in 2016, with the US dollar stabilized, the increase in traded value was more the result of supply and demand dynamics pushing up prices for a number of important traded species.