Browse Data and Analysis

Aquaculture production in 2023 declined steeply to 105,091 metric tons (MT), a 25.43% decrease from 2022. The Peruvian aquaculture industry exported 4.5 million MT in 2023, a decrease of 12.56% from 2022 levels.

On August 24, the General Administration of Customs of China (GACC) suspended all imports of aquatic products (including edible aquatic animals) from Japan, effective immediately.

Since the Netherlands lifted all COVID-19 related restrictions at the end of February 2022 and most people returned to the workplace, new opportunities continue to emerge for U.S. agricultural products. Consumers are especially interested in healthier, more convenient, nutritious, and high-quality products.

Japan is one of the world’s leading consumers of seafood. In 2022, it imported $15 billion of seafood products, making it the world’s third largest importer. Half of Japan’s seafood demand is met by imports. The United States is the third largest seafood supplier to Japan, specializing in salmon, cod, pollock, herring, crab, and lobster.

Japan will require importers of U.S. products containing mackerel, Pacific saury, sardine, squid and cuttlefish to submit a newly approved Catch Certificate issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The requirement extends to all seafood originating from these species if the marine product is harvested after November 30, 2022.

Venezuelan seafood production totaled 241,000 MT in 2021, growing by 16 percent compared to 2020. Seafood products are Venezuela’s largest agricultural export, accounting for more than 54 percent of the total value of agricultural exports in 2021.

Salmon is Chile’s largest food and agricultural export and the second largest total export sector after copper. In 2021, exports totaled 615 thousand metric tons worth $4.8 billion. Production is growing rapidly; Chilean salmon production grew an average of 10.4 percent between 2016 and 2020 and totaled 1.1 million metric tons (MMT) in 2020.

On April 26, 2022, Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries designated mackerel, Pacific saury, sardine, squid and cuttlefish as vulnerable to illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. From December 1, 2022, Japan will require catch certificates to import products containing these species as a main ingredient.

This report outlines updated plant and label registration guidance for U.S. fishery product exporters to Brazil. The USDA Foreign Agricultural Service Office of Agricultural Affairs (OAA) Brasília will continue to provide assistance for U.S. plant registration in Brazil, however, U.S. fishery product exporters will be responsible for product label registration in Brazil.

Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare (MHLW) released precautional notes explaining its food safety regulatory vision for fish products developed using genome editing technology.

On December 4, 2020, Japan passed the Adjustment for the Domestic Distribution of Specified Marine Animals and Plants Act to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

Fresh oyster imports to Japan must comply with Japan’s (i) Specific Standard for Oysters for Raw Consumption and (ii) Handling of Toxic Shellfish Contaminated with Paralytic and Diarrheal Shellfish...