Annual g lobal production of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) and its hybrids (O. niloticus x O. mossambicus) has become the number one species with the production of over 7 million tons surpassing the production of Grass carp (6.2 million tons). Tilapia farming, and its acceptance as regular diet, is expanding with significant investment in infrastructure and technolog y development with improved efficiency and sustainability augmented by the support of the government policies and priorities. Once considered as pest, it is becoming popular species farmed in more than 150 countries. It was dubbed as “aquatic chicken” long back but it is showing its potential to stand out among the aquatic species like that of chicken among the bird species becoming everyone’s fish which was once considered poor man’s fish.
According to FAO ( 2024), PR China dominates (67%) global Aquaculture production whereas in case of tilapia, China accounts for only 26.5% but is still the largest producer and exporter. Growth of tilapia aquaculture in many other countries is so rapid that they are narrowing down the gaps, for examples, Indonesia (21%) and Egypt (14.7%). Other significant producers include Bangladesh (6.2%), Thailand (4.1%) , the Philippines (3.8%) , and Vietnam (3%) in Asia, and Brazil (5.8) , Colombia and Mexico and in Central and South America. While China remains a leader, other countries are also expanding production and developing their markets, especially in North America and Europe. The industry is also rapidly growing in South America, driven by both domestic consumption and export to North America. S ome countries are trying to grow tilapia in saline water e.g. Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore etc. and do processing and marketing value-added products like smoked tilapia , frozen fillet, vacuum packed etc. US is the largest tilapia importer. Value of tilapia import surpassed 1.2 billion USD in 2023 which is the third important farmed species after shrimp and salmon. Global tilapia market value has reached 15 billion USD in 2025 and expected to reach 24 billion USD by 2035.
In Africa there are different species of tilapias . Egypt is way ahead and its farming is growing fast also in other countries , especially in Ghana, Uganda, Nigeria, Zambia, Kenya, Tanzania , Zimbabwe, Côte D’Ivoire , Mali and so on. Most of these countries are using large circular cages (10-20 m diameter) in lakes and reservoirs. Nile tilapia accounts for over 90% of the total tilapia production in Africa. Their production is likely to come into the picture soon. However, in South Asia except Bangladesh , despite having so many efforts, its growth is very slow. There are several underlaying reasons which include; strong preference to carps especially Rohu, b ad history and impression as invasive alien species, uncontrolled breeding and recruits in grow-out ponds, m isconception about hormone used for sex-reversal, less meat compared to carps and other species, cold winter that restrict breeding and growth, and shortages of t echnical expert s, promoters and advocate especially for its breeding and hatchery technology and marketing. Considering these, tilapia farming was officially or unofficially banned in India, Nepal and Pakistan until a decade ago. It has been officially accepted realizing the benefits such as availability of state-of-the-art hatchery technology capable of producing billions of high quality monosex fingerlings, fast growth, high density culture and potential for higher productivity, white meat with no Y-bones, firm and good taste suitable for producing boneless fillet for export and domestic markets. Sri Lanka has a long history of tilapia introduction but farming is limited . Afghanistan, Bhutan, and Maldives have no tilapia at all. Efforts are being made to accelerate its dissemination through training, outreach and consultancy services. More will be discussed during the presentation.