Canada's position among the world's fisheries

2.1 Harvesting

Based on data of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Canada ranked 19th in terms of the total volume of fish landings in 2005 (1% of the world total). This represents a drop of one position compared to 2004, when Canada was ranked in 18th place. The top three countries with respect to total fish landings were China, Peru and the U.S. respectively, which had cumulated over one third of worldwide catches in 2005.

As opposed to the world's overall aquaculture production which has continued to increase, global fish landings have effectively decreased by 1% in 2005 as compared to the previous year.

Canadian fish harvesters operate in FAO ^{Footnote 1} fishing areas 21 and 67. Area 21 covers the northwest portion of the Atlantic Ocean, while area 67 covers the northeast part of the Pacific Ocean; i.e., both oceans that border Canada to the east and to the west. In 2005, landings have attained 5.4 million tonnes in these two areas, including 1.1 million tonnes in Canada (20% of total). Most landings took place in the U.S. for a total of 4 million tonnes, which represents 75% of the overall landings in these two areas. Total catches in the northwest Pacific and northeast Atlantic represented close to 6% of worldwide catches in 2005.

Figure 2.1: Total catches on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of Canada and the United States (FAO areas 21 and 67), by country, 2005

Source: FAO, FishStat Plus, Capture Production.

On average, the United States had close to half of total catches in the northwest Atlantic between 2003 and 2005, compared to 38% for Canada. In terms of volume, Canada ranked first at the beginning of the 1990's: catches by Canadian fish harvesters at that time represented 42% of total catches (average for 1988-1990), as compared to 40% for American fish harvesters. It should be noted that following the collapse of Atlantic cod stocks at the beginning of the 1990's, the total landings in the northwest Atlantic have decreased by nearly 30%.

2.2 Aquaculture

As a result of aquaculture production that amounted to about 154 thousand tonnes in 2005, Canada was 23^rd in the world in terms of volume and 20^th in terms of value. China ranked first in aquaculture production, as it did with respect to marine fisheries. In 2005, the total volume of commercial aquaculture in China has reached 43.3 million tonnes (valued at US$40bn), which represents more than the two thirds of the total worldwide aquaculture production.

As opposed to marine fisheries, the worldwide aquaculture production has had an strong growth of 14% in terms of volume since 2003. Several countries, including Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam had growth rates exceeding 30% during that period. In comparison, the Canadian aquaculture production has increased only by 2% between 2003 and 2005.

¹Includes Hong Kong and Macao.
²Canadian figures may not match exactly those found in Section 3 due to different data sources. Source: FAO, FishStat Plus, Aquaculture Production Quantities.

2.3 International trade

Since 2004, Canada has ranked 6^th worldwide among seafood exporting countries in terms of total export value, behind the United States and Denmark, among others. This represents a drop in rank given that in 2003, Canada was 5^th, just ahead of Denmark. China has remained the top seafood exporting country between 2003 and 2005, with a 10% share of exports for these products in 2005, which is twice as much as the Canadian share. However, the Chinese share of world exports is considerably less than its share of the global aquaculture production value (51%) and of its percentage of global fishing volume (19%), which can be explained by the fact that a major part of the Chinese production goes to the domestic market.

As opposed to this, Canada exports a larger share of its catches and its aquaculture production, estimated at 85% ^{Footnote 2} (by value). This partly explains why even though Canada's fishing and aquaculture production barely represent 1% of the worldwide total, Canadian exports amount to 5% of worldwide exports of fish and seafood.

The situation in the seafood trade sector has evolved considerably during the last decade. In 1990, Canada and the United States were respectively 2^nd and 1^st in terms of seafood export value. Beginning in 1991, the gradual decrease in groundfish catches until the collapse of Atlantic cod stocks in 1992 and the increased aquaculture production in Asian countries caused Canada to slip from 2^nd to 7^th place for exporters in 1993. Since then, the increase in the price of crustaceans has allowed Canada to regain a few places in recent years.

¹Includes re-exports.
²Includes Hong Kong and Macao.
³Canadian figures may not match exactly those found in Section 4 due to different data sources.
Source: FAO, FishStat Plus, Fisheries Commodities Production and Trade.

Table 2.4 below shows the main Canadian fish and seafood exports worldwide by product group in 2005. It can be noticed that Canada has a major share of worldwide exports of some products, such as lobster (57% of worldwide exports of this species are Canadian products), frozen crab (44%), fish livers and roes (37%), smoked herring (64%), Greenland, Atlantic and Pacific halibut (14%) and fresh haddock (15%).

¹Products grouped according to HS categories.
²Includes re-exports.
³Canadian figures may not match exactly those found in Section 4 due to different data sources.
Source: FAO, FishStat Plus, Fisheries Commodities Production and Trade.

Canada's imports of fish and seafood are well below its exports as it was only the 12^th worldwide importer of these products in 2005. This is actually higher than in 2004, when it was in 13^th place. Japan and the United States were the two major fish and seafood importers during that same year and they imported more than 30% of the worldwide volume for this market.

¹Includes Hong Kong and Macao.
²Canadian figures may not match exactly those found in Section 4 due to different data sources.
Source: FAO, FishStat Plus, Fisheries Commodities Production and Trade.

2.4 Demand

Based on FAO data, annual seafood consumption in Canada amounted to 23.1 kg per person in 2005. This is modest when compared to major Canadian seafood export destinations such as Japan, France, Iceland and Norway. The Canadian consumption of fish and seafood is similar to that of its main trade partner, the United States, where the consumption per capita was 23.8 kg in 2005.

¹Sum of "fish" and "aquatic products, other" categories.
Source: FAOSTAT, Statistics division, FAO. Data copied: November 14, 2007, http://faostat.fao.org.