Tilapia’s popularity is growing worldwide, and global tilapia production now stands at 3.2 million metric tons annually, with China representing more than half of the total, according to the keynote speaker at last week’s Tilapia 2010 conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
In his address, “Tilapia: A Major Contributor to World Food Security,” professor Kevin Fitzsimmons of the University of Arizona demonstrated how tilapia aquaculture has ballooned worldwide over the past 30 years.
Though China is the world leader in tilapia aquaculture, said Fitzsimmons, some countries are gearing up to increase their tilapia production. He pointed to Vietnam, where some pangasius farms are being converted to tilapia farms, and to Malaysia, where tilapia aquaculture is on the verge of expanding thanks to support by the government and private investors.
Fitzsimmons said he is encouraged by the practice of aquaponics, which some tilapia farmers in various parts of the world, including China’s Hainan province, are embracing. Aquaponics involves the simultaneous cultivation of fish and plants whereby the animal effluent that accumulates in the water is filtered by the plants as nutrients and re-circulated back to the fish. He said he expects other species to follow the model set by tilapia .
Calling it “aquatic chicken,” Fitzsimmons illustrated that tilapia is both a commodity and a speciality food item and has the potential to be widely farmed and sold in restaurants and grocery stores worldwide.
The three-day Tilapia 2010 conference attracted 240 delegates from 34 countries. It was supported by the Malaysian Department of Fisheries and organized by Infofish. The conference concluded on Friday with a field visit to a Malaysian tilapia farm in Lake Kenyir, Terengganu, 450 kilometers north of Kuala Lumpur.
All Aquaculture stories >