FISH MANAGEMENT

 

 EPISODE 2 : How are fishery products used?

 More than 110 million tonnes (77 percent) of world fish production was used for direct human consumption. Almost all of the remaining 33 million tonnes was destined for non-food products, in particular the manufacture of fishmeal and fish oil If China is excluded, the quantities were 72 million tonnes and 20 million tonnes, respectively. In 2006, more than three-quarters of China’s reported fish production was destined for human consumption, with the remaining amount (an estimated 13 million tonnes) reduced to fish meal and allocated to other non-food uses, including direct feed for aquaculture. In China, aquatic products are traditionally most commonly distributed to the domestic market in live and fresh form. However, in recent years, processing has seen significant growth. For example, in 1996, total processed aquatic products for human consumption accounted for 20 percent of total domestic aquatic production, while in 2006 this share reached 33 percent. In the last few years, more value-added products have been made in China, including retail packs. China processes not only domestic production but also imported fish into an array of fish products, including salted, dried, smoked and various preserved fish products for both domestic and export markets. The Chinese reprocessing industry is labour-intensive and traditionally works on low margins, which have recently tended to narrow further with escalating costs for raw materials.

In 2006, 48.5 percent of the fish destined for human consumption was in live and fresh form, which is often the most preferred and highly priced product form. Fifty-four percent (77 million tonnes) of the world’s fish production underwent some form of processing. Seventy-four percent (57 million tonnes) of this processed fish was used for manufacturing products for direct human consumption in frozen, cured and prepared or preserved form, and the rest for non-food uses. Freezing is the main method of processing fish for food use, accounting for 50 percent of total processed fish for human consumption in 2006, followed by prepared and preserved (29 percent) and cured fish (21 percent).

Fish is one of the most versatile food commodities and can be utilized in a great variety of ways and product forms. It is generally distributed as either live, fresh, chilled, frozen, heat-treated, fermented, dried, smoked, salted, pickled, boiled, fried, freeze-dried, minced, powdered or canned, or as a combination of two or more of these forms. However, fish can also be preserved by many other methods. The trade in live fish is special. In some parts of Southeast Asia, and particularly in China, the trade is not formally regulated but based on tradition. However, in markets such as the EU, the trade in live fish has to comply with requirements inter alia concerning animal welfare during transportation
source: Green Fact