 From an activity that was primarily confined to Asia, aquaculture is developing, expanding and intensifying worldwide, except in sub-Saharan Africa. This is evident as nearly half the fish consumed as food worldwide are raised on fish farms rather than caught in the wild, says a new report by UN's Food and Agriculture Organization In 2004, global production of farmed fish was about 60 million tonnes. Of this 41.3 million tonnes (59 per cent) was produced in China and 22 per cent from the rest of Asia and the Pacific region 
Of the total production, human beings consume about 45.5 million tonnes of farmed fish, worth us $63 billion each year. Currently, freshwater and marine capture fisheries produce 95 million tonnes annually, of which 60 is for human consumption World aquaculture has grown at an average annual rate of 8.8 per cent from 1950 to 2004. Latin America and the Caribbeans had the highest rate of 21.3 per cent
Most aquaculture production consists of exotic species. The total production of Nile tilapia in Asia and the Pacific was 1.2 million tonnes in 2004 , as against 212,000 tonnes in places where it is native
Globally, demand for fish is climbing. Over 40 per cent of fish production is traded across borders and exports exceed that of meat, dairy, cereals, sugar and coffee
2004, developed countries imported 33 million tonnes of fish worth over us $61 billion
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