About 50 percent production that was last year obtained by the Peruvian aquaculture sector - exceeding 85,000 tonnes - was consumed in the domestic market.
Article continues below
The other half was destined to exports, informed Deputy Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Juan Carlos Requejo Aleman.
On taking stock of the sector, the deputy minister said that "in recent years, aquaculture grew because it increased demand and production of aquatic resources".
He recalled the information from the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (INEI), compared to the current average fish consumption per person is 15.4 kg.
In aquaculture, Requejo recalled that in 2011 the domestic market consumed 20,265 tonnes, a figure that in 2015 amounted to 39,813 tonnes, which means a total growth of 96.46 percent.
After noting that some of the areas with high potential are Puno, Piura and Tumbes, the deputy minister stated that total sales in Peru during 2015, trout ranked first with 90.04 percent, followed by tilapia (4.9 percent), shrimp (2.16 percent) and scallops (1.30 percent).
Aquaculture product exports were led by the shrimp, which accounted for 67.69 percent of export volume. It was followed by scallops with 24.0 percent, trout with 7 percent, tilapia with 1.07 percent and finally paiche with 0.13 percent.
In addition, he highlighted the rapid growth experienced by the trout in the last decade: whereas in 2006 a total of 5,794 tonnes was produced, last year a record figure of 38,440 tonnes was achieved, representing an increase of over 600 percent.
The deputy minister expressed that the variety of species with aquaculture potential, Peru has many chances of continuing growing at a regional level.. ■
A very active and complex mid-May weather pattern is set to produce numerous areas of severe weather, heavy rain, high winds, and anomalous temperatures through this weekend.