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The United States
Assessments and Projections from Outlook for Fish to 2020: Meeting Global Demand
- In 2020, fish production in the United States is projected to be 4.9 million metric tons, an 11 percent increase over 1997 production levels. This is 3.8 percent of the projected total global fish production.
- Eighty-four percent of fish produced in the United States in 2020 will be from wild fisheries. In 1997, wild fisheries accounted for 90 percent of U.S. fish production.
- The United States will produce a projected 3 million metric tons of high-value finfish from wild fisheries in 2020, accounting for ten percent of the global total. By comparison, the U.S. will produce 81,000 metric tons of high-value finfish from aquaculture.
- In 2020, net imports for high-value finfish into the United States will be a projected 1.2 million metric tons. That same year, net exports of low-value food fish from the U.S. will be 690,000 metric tons.
- Per capita consumption of fish in the United States is projected to remain steady over the next twenty years, at 19.7 kilograms. In 2020, this will be roughly one-third of consumption levels in Japan, but three times the levels in sub-Saharan Africa and India.
- Of the 6.3 million metric tons of fish projected to be consumed in the United States in 2020, 4.2 million, or two-thirds, will be high-value finfish.
Other facts about the United States:
- The United States' gross national income per capita is $34,370, compared to $460 in sub-Saharan Africa. (World Bank, World Development Indicators, 2003)
- Agriculture comprises only 1.6 percent of U.S. gross domestic product, compared to 16.1 percent in sub-Saharan Africa. (World Bank, World Development Indicators, 2003)
- Although the U.S. is looking to increase its fish exports to sub-Saharan Africa, particularly Nigeria, the U.S.'s fish exports to Nigeria in 2001 comprised less than 2 percent of Nigeria's annual fish imports. (United States Foreign Agricultural Service, 2003)
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