This document summarizes a technical paper that assesses and monitors global tilapia markets. It develops indicators to analyze tilapia trade data from 2015-2014 at global, regional and national levels. It finds that in 2015, frozen fillet tilapia accounted for most global tilapia trade by quantity and value. Developed regions favored fillet tilapia while developing regions favored whole tilapia. It also analyzes specific tilapia markets like the US, Africa, and Oceania and their major trading partners.

1. ASSESSMENT AND MONITORING OF
GLOBAL TILAPIA MARKETS
A forthcoming technical paper
for FAO WAPI module on fish trade

2. Research Team
Wang, Weiwei: Fishery Market Analyst, FIAM
Liang, Xiao: Project Officer, Agricultural trade promotion Center, Ministry of
Agriculture, Beijing, China
Cai, Junning: Aquaculture Officer (Economics), FIAA
Shen, Nianjun: Fishery Industry Officer, FIAM
2

3. Tilapia: the most popular aquaculture species + one of the
most traded seafood commodities
This paper would:
• Develop a set of indicators for assessment and monitoring of global tilapia
markets.
• Assess the status of tilapia international trade markets in 2015 and monitor its
trend between 2015 and 2014 at the global, regional and national levels and
highlight some salient patterns or stylized facts. 3
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Milliontons
Global tilapia production (million tonnes)
Aquaculture
Capture

4. 4
Method and data

5. 5
Data source: Global Trade Atlas (GTA)
Commodity: 9 tilapia commodity groups
 Four basic commodities
• Fresh whole tilapia: HS030271
• Frozen whole tilapia: HS030323
• Fresh fillet tilapia: HS030431
• Frozen fillet tilapia: HS030461
 Five aggregated commodities
• Fresh tilapia: HS030271+HS030431
• Frozen tilapia: HS030323 + HS030461
• Whole tilapia: HS030271+HS030323
• Fillet tilapia: HS030431+HS030461
• All tilapia:HS030271+HS030323+HS030431+HS030461
Market: over 200 international markets at different levels
 National markets (180)
 Regional markets (31 regional or sub-regional markets, 24 trade blocs or ad
hoc groups)
 The world market

6. 6
Indicators
Basic market conditions Market size
• Quantity (kg or tonne)
• Value (USD)
Price (USD/kg)
Market structure Number of suppliers
Effective number of suppliers (Entropy index)
Market potential Per capita import (USD/person/year or
kg/person/year)
Share of tilapia in the import of HS 4-digit
commodity groups
• Fresh whole tilapia (HS030271) in fresh whole fish
(HS0302)
• Frozen whole tilapia (HS030323) in frozen whole
fish (HS0303)
• Fresh fillet tilapia (HS030431) in fillet fish (HS0304)
• Frozen fillet tilapia (HS030461) in fillet fish (HS0304)

7. 7
Tilapia markets in 2014 and
2015: a global overview

8. Global tilapia market (quantity)
8
Image: @2017 Google

9. Commodity composition of global tilapia market in 2015
9
Nearly two billion USD by value Half million tonnes by quantity
Whole
tilapia
22%
Fillet tilapia
78%
[] [] Frozen
whole
tilapia
20%
Fresh fillet
tilapia
13%
Frozen fillet
tilapia
65%
Whole
tilapia
38%
Fillet tilapia
62%
Fresh
whole
tilapia
2%
Frozen
whole
tilapia
36%
Fresh fillet
tilapia
7%
Frozen fillet
tilapia
55%
0.5
million
tonnes
1.7
billion
USD

10. Declined global tilapia markets: 2015 vs. 2014
10

11. 11
Selected examples of indicator
analysis

12. 12
1. Market size

13. United States: the largest tilapia market in the world
13
China
75%
Indonesia
5%
Honduras
5%
Taiwan
Province of
China
4% Colombia
2%
Costa Rica
2% Mexico
2%
Viet Nam
2%
Ecuador
1%
rest of world
2%
Top suppliers of all tilapia to the US
market, quantity, 2015
Commodity composition in United States of America in 2015 by Value
Value: 962 million USD
Quantity: 215,585 tons
Whole
tilapia
7%
Fillet tilapia
93%
Fresh
whole
tilapia
1%
Frozen
whole
tilapia
6%
Fresh fillet
tilapia
19%
Frozen fillet
tilapia
74%
962
million

14. 14
2. Price

15. Africa: the largest market for frozen whole tilapia; above-
average price in many African countries
15
 Africa accounts for 51 percent of world frozen whole tilapia market in quantity,
and 55 percent in value.
 Africa’s average frozen whole tilapia market price is 2.13, higher than the world
average price of 2.01.
Value: 192 million USD
Quantity: 89,484 tonnes
Image: @2017 Google

16. 16
3. Number of suppliers VS.
Effective number of suppliers

17. Number of suppliers VS. Effective number of suppliers
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 European countries have high number of suppliers and higher number of effective number of suppliers.
 Generally speaking, the bigger the market size, the more suppliers it has, and the larger the effective number
of suppliers. (Austria)
 Some countries have more number of suppliers, but relatively low effective number of suppliers. (United
States)
10 12
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7 11
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121 2 111
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1 1
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11 7
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6
2 3
7 6
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9 12
15
133
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18
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10
12
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20
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30
1628
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19
1
2
1 1 11
2
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111
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25
30
0
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8
9
10
0.000001 0.00001 0.0001 0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10 100 1000 10000
Effectivenumberofsuppliers
Market size ( million USD)
All tilapia
Africa Asia Europe Latin America and Caribbean Northern America Oceania
Bubble size: number of suppliers
United States
Austria

18. 18
Top suppliers of all tilapia, quantity, 2015
China
30%
Netherlands
22%
Germany
17%
Italy
16%
Philippines
3%
Kazakhstan
3% Poland
2%
Denmark
1%
Indonesia
1%
rest of the
world
5%
Austria
China
75%
Indones
ia
5%
Honduras
5%
Taiwan Province
of China
4%
Colombia
2%
Costa Rica
2%
Mexico
2%
Viet Nam
2%
Ecuador
1%
rest of world
2%
United States
More evenly distributed market share:
Number of suppliers: 30
Effective number of suppliers: 8.66
More concentrated market share:
Number of suppliers: 30
Effective number of suppliers: 4.09

19. 19
4. Per capita import

20. Per capita import of frozen fillet tilapia
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1. World average per capita import of frozen fillet tilapia in 2015 is 0.15USD/person/year.
2. Israel has the largest per capita import of 4.61$/person/year, followed by Costa Rica (2.8), Macao China
(2.73), Sint Maarten(2.3) and USA(2.2).
3. The per capita import of most African countries are below world average.
Image: @2017 Google

21. 21
5. Share of tilapia in the import
of HS 4-digit commodity groups

22. Share of frozen whole tilapia in frozen whole fish
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1. African countries have higher share of frozen whole tilapia in frozen whole fish.
2. Zambia, South Sudan and Somalia have a share close to 100%.
3. The United states has a value share of 10% and a quantity share of 20%.
4. About 100 countries’ market share are less than 10%.
Image: @2017 Google

23. 23
Salient patterns and stylized facts

24. Developed regions favor fillet tilapia, developing regions
favor whole tilapia
24
Commodity composition of
developed regions
Commodity composition of
developing regions
Whole
tilapia
21%
Fillet tilapia
79%
Fresh whole
tilapia
2%
Frozen
whole
tilapia
19%
Fresh fillet
tilapia
10%
Frozen fillet
tilapia
69%
0.3
million
tonnes Whole
tilapia
63%
Fillet tilapia
37%
Fresh whole
tilapia
3%
Frozen
whole
tilapia
61%
Fresh fillet
tilapia
1%
Frozen fillet
tilapia
35%
0.2
million
tonnes

25. Netherland and Belgium: both a large market and a large
supplier of fresh fillet tilapia to European market
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Netherlands
38%
Belgium
15%
United Kingdom of
Great Britain and
Northern Ireland
8%
Denmark
8%
Poland
6%
Spain
5%
Germany
4%
Greece
3% Latvia
2%
rest of the world
11%
Top suppliers of fresh fillet tilapia in Europe,
quantity, 2015
The Netherlands and Belgium have a clear focus on re-exporting fillet
tilapia to other E.U. countries.(http://pdf.gaalliance.org/pdf/GAA-
Fernandez-Nov14.pdf market place)

26. Costa Rica’s tilapia export goes to the USA
26
 USA imported 4922 tonnes of fresh fillet tilapia from Costa Rica in
2015, which takes about 92% of Costa Rica’s export of all tilapia.
United States of
America
97%
Canada
2%
France
1%
rest of the world
0%
Costa Rica's export market of all tilapia, quantity, 2015

27. Myanmar
40%
Pakistan
12%
China
11%
Bangladesh
11%
Honduras
8%
Mexico
6%
Costa Rica
5%
Colombia
5% Viet Nam
1%
rest of the world
1%
Suppliers for the USA market, fresh whole tilapia, quantity, 2015
(1,200 tonnes, 5.5 million USD)
Who are the largest suppliers of fresh whole tilapia to the
United States?
27
 In 2013, “Sustainable Seafood Industry Development” project launched by University of Arizona and Yangon
University, supported by USAID, greatly drove the exports of whole fresh tilapia from Myanmar to the
USA.(http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/business/2013-07/21/c_132559309.htm )
 The American Soybean Association’s (ASA), World Initiative for Soy in Human Health (WISHH) program began a
three-year program in 2011 called “FEEDing Pakistan.” The program aims to enhance the country’s growing
aquaculture sector through trial fish feeding using high–protein, floating fish feed produced from U.S. soybean
meal, and it also provided valuable training to fish farmers. The main specie was tilapia.
(http://blogs.usda.gov/2012/10/03/aquaculture-supports-u-s-soy/ )

28. China dominate frozen whole tilapia in African markets
28
98% of African market of all tilapia goes to frozen whole
tilapia, where 98% of them are imported from China.
China
98%
India
1%
Thailand
0%
rest of the world
1%
Suppliers for African market, frozen whole tilapia, quantity, 2015

29. Oceania strongly rely on Taiwan Province of China for frozen
whole tilapia
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1. The Oceania market has a strong preference for frozen whole tilapia (1,415 tons) with an
import share of 93% of all tilapia.
2. Its importing price (2.25 USD/Kg) of frozen whole tilapia is the highest among all regions,
reflecting high quality product? High transportation cost?
Taiwan Province of
China
85%
China
9%
Malaysia
3%
Viet Nam
2%
Thailand
1%
rest of the world
0%
Top suppliers for Oceania market, frozen whole tilapia, quantity, 2015

30. High Price in UAE probably resulted by long distance
transport from the UK and demand for high quality product
30
 UAE imported 33.7 tons of fresh tilapia fillets in total in 2015, with UK
supplying more than 80%.
 UAE has a high importing price of fresh tilapia fillets of 12.29 USD/Kg, where
the world average price is 7.16 USD/Kg. Long distance transportation and
demand for high quality products might be important reasons that bring up
the price.
United Kingdom of
Great Britain and
Northern Ireland
83%
Thailand
17%
Top suppliers of fresh fillet tilapia to UAE market, quantity,
2015

31. 31
FAO World Aquaculture
Performance Indicators
(WAPI):
An initiative to facilitate evidence-based
policymaking and sector management
in aquaculture and fisheries

32. Welcome collaboration on WAPI
WAPI@fao.org
32