ACCORDING TO A REPORT BY RABOBANK AND FAO (2024), 27% OF TILAPIA IS PRODUCED IN AFRICA AND EGYPT HAS BECOME THE WORLD’S LEADING PRODUCER OF TILAPIA
The growth in global tilapia supply seems to have recovered and is expected to reach the 7 million tonnes mark in 2024. The main producers of farmed tilapia remain Egypt, Indonesia, China, and Brazil. The first two countries, Egypt and Indonesia, each produced almost 1.6 MMT in 2023. Strong growth volumes are observed among other African tilapia producers, notably Uganda, Ghana and Zambia. Africa, through the contribution of these countries, contributes 27% of global tilapia production with approximately 1,894,000 tonnes in 2023. This success is the result of the mastery of its farming in the African continent, in addition, tilapia farming can be an engine of inclusive growth in Africa, and represents an alternative for the development of aquaculture of other species such as the success of the African catfish in Nigeria, shrimp in Egypt and Madagascar and rainbow trout in South Africa and Morocco.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO, 2024), in 2022, global aquatic animal production reached a new world record of 185 million tonnes (live weight equivalent), an increase of 4% compared to 2020. Aquatic animal farming produced about 94 million tonnes, or 51% of the total, surpassing capture fisheries for the first time, which produced 91 million tonnes (49%), and 45 countries produced more farmed aquatic animals than capture fisheries. Ten other producers produced between 40 and 50 percent of the total, including (in order of production) Indonesia, Norway, Chile, Thailand and Brazil. Of some 730 farmed species, 17 staple species account for about 60 percent of global aquaculture production, while other species are locally important. In 2022, global inland aquatic animal aquaculture produced 59.1 million tonnes, or 62.6% of total global aquaculture production. Finfish contributed 89.7% of global inland aquaculture production, followed by crustaceans (8.7%), far ahead of all other species. In Africa, inland aquaculture production reached 2,129,554 tonnes in 2022 according to FAO (2024), while global cichlid production exceeded more than 6.5 million tonnes in 2022.
Inland aquaculture production in Africa is dominated by freshwater finfish (2,129 million metric tonnes), compared to only 187,271 metric tonnes of production from marine and coastal finfish aquaculture. Global tilapia aquaculture production has increased from 380 000 t in 1990 to 7 million t in 2024 (FAO, 2024). Asia is known for its highest global production, followed by Africa (27%). Although 17 tilapia species are known to contribute to global tilapia aquaculture production, Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) is the dominant species. O. niloticus is characterized by its versatility, allowing it to adapt to semi-intensive, intensive and hyper-intensive production densities. In addition, its robustness facilitates its adaptation to intensive farming technologies, including recirculating systems, biofloc technology (BFT) and green water technology (GWT). Although tilapia ranks third in global aquaculture production (FAO, 2024), a key feature of the species, in addition to its feeding with formulated pellets, is its ability to acquire additional nutrition from photoheterotrophic or heterotrophic systems, which reduces the feed conversion rate and, consequently, feed costs (Gullian-Klanian et al., 2020; Huchette et al., 2000; Khanjani et al., 2022).
In the current state of knowledge, the best basic fish for fish farming in Africa remains the Nile Tilapia. Its main qualities are: its hardiness, its rapid growth, its easy reproduction, its relatively plastic diet, its success with consumers, in addition to the mastery of its breeding in the African continent, in addition, tilapia farming can be a driver of inclusive growth in Africa.
Source :FAO, Rabobank, 2024.
