2017 - SUPPLY AND DEMAND IN TILAPIA MARKETS

Tilapia demand and prices in the US, Canada and parts of Western Europe have dropped in 2015, 2016, and early 2017.   This drop seems to be completely attributed to several misleading reports posted on the internet.  Google, Bing, and Yahoo searches for tilapia bring up several sites in their top results with claims that tilapia is worse than bacon for your health.  Sites with more accurate and valid information are buried lower in the search results.  It is the lead heading of worse than bacon that seems to engender the most attention, even though the claim has been discredited by nearly every nutrition expert, medical doctor and dietician.  The comments were included in a technical paper comparing omega 3 to omega 6 fatty acid concentrations in farmed tilapia and other fishes.  The first figure in the article shows the measured omega 3 levels in farmed tilapia to actually be much higher than many common warm water wild caught marine species.  But a focus on the relatively high ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 led to the spurious comments.  Strategies to correct the misinformation and raise the search results for more accurate information will be discussed. While the drop in demand seems to be greatest in English speaking countries, questions about quality have arisen from many countries. Despite the drop in demand in some markets, global production and consumption have continued to rise.

Production and consumption have increased in several countries that are particularly important on a global basis.    First, Indonesia has reported rapid increases in production but only minimal increase in exports.  The government reports for 2015 and 2016 are for over a 1,110,000 metric tons. Second, Egypt has also rapidly increased production, to more than 1,000,000 tons, mostly for domestic consumption with some exports to the Gulf Arab countries.  Third, Bangladesh has increased its production at a tremendous rate in recent years.  In 2002 the production was under 10,000 mt and by 2016, reliable estimates are for more than 300,000 mt essentially all for domestic markets.  New production in India and Pakistan encourage us to believe that these two huge markets could become key leaders in further tilapia research and development and markets.