The fisheries sector is a central part of our productive structure. It stands out as the country’s seventh largest export complex, is a net contributor of foreign exchange, generates quality employment and contributes to regional development. At the same time, in a context in which global fisheries and aquaculture production has reached historic levels and aquatic animal consumption is expected to continue increasing, Argentina has great opportunities to deepen its development. This growing trend in global demand for aquatic food, combined with an ample endowment of fishery resources and good environmental conditions for aquaculture production, can drive a significant increase in the sector’s exports.
Understanding that this sector still has considerable potential to contribute to the productive development of our country, this paper aims to identify and analyse the most relevant opportunities for its future evolution. To this end, an exhaustive diagnosis is carried out, with the aim of understanding its dynamics and evolution up to its current configuration, exploring in detail both its strengths and weaknesses.
Global fisheries and aquaculture production
Over the past five decades, global fishery and aquaculture production has quadrupled, hand in hand with a steady increase in aquatic animal consumption. These products are expected to become even more important for nutrition in the future. In 2020, a total of 214 million tonnes of food were produced from fisheries and aquaculture, with 178 million tonnes coming from aquatic animals and 36 million tonnes from algae (FAO, 2022).
In the current scenario, only seven countries account for more than 50% of the total marine catch. Argentina, with an average annual production of 800,000 tonnes (1% of the global catch), ranked 20th in the ranking. This places it among the top 25 producing countries, which together account for 80% of the world’s marine fisheries production.
The evolution of aquaculture worldwide
The global wild fish catch has remained at relatively constant levels since the early 1990s, ranging from 90 to 95 million tonnes per year. However, aquaculture has experienced a dramatic growth: from 1960 to 2015, it has increased its production volume 50 times, reaching over 100 million tonnes per year (Figure 2).
Status of the sector in Argentina
The fisheries sector
Although the fishing industry is currently a pillar of Argentina’s development, its exports often go unnoticed compared to other sectors. However, this sector has a long and significant history in economic terms, and is a considerable source of foreign exchange for our country.
Aquaculture
Aquaculture, on the other hand, although still representing a small part of aquatic animal production in the country, shows a very promising trend. So far this century, aquaculture activity in Argentina has grown gradually and steadily to over 4,000 tonnes in 2015. After a drop in the following years, production showed a clear recovery by 2022 to over 6000 tonnes, a record for the country.
In addition to the positive trend of the last twenty years, the predictions are very encouraging: it is expected to exceed 11,000 tonnes by 2025/2026, which would represent an average growth of 450% since 2020.
Global demand for aquatic food will continue to grow and, in a context where the biological sustainability of species imposes limitations to increase wild fisheries, aquaculture appears as the great opportunity to respond to this global demand.
Employed and well-paid
Regional development
Finally, beyond the contribution to the national economy, fishing activity has positive implications for regional development, particularly in the case of provinces with lower population density. This is due to the fact that a large part of the landings are made in ports in the Patagonian region. Although most of the catches are concentrated in Buenos Aires, with Mar del Plata as the main port (48.9% of total landings), landings are also made in Puerto Madryn (15.9%) and Puerto Rawson in Chubut (12.1%), Puerto Deseado in Santa Cruz (7.9%) and Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego (3.7%).
Beyond the variations derived from the intrinsically dynamic nature of fishing resources, the increase in the share of Patagonian ports in total landings was largely due to the Patagonian port reimbursement programme, a policy that sought to promote the development of the activity in these southern provinces through a tax subsidy scheme.
The advent of the Federal Fisheries Regime (RFP)
Following overfishing, which led to the so-called “hake crisis”, a legislative response came at the end of 1997 with the enactment of the Federal Fisheries Regime (RFP) (Law N° 24.922). Its objective is to ensure a rational use of resources and to avoid their depletion by granting the State the monopoly of the titles by which live resources are allowed to be taken from the Argentinean sea.
One of the most significant changes achieved with the enactment of this law was the establishment of the Individual Transferable Catch Quota (ITQ) Management Regime to replace the Olympic access system that previously governed. However, its effective implementation was only achieved in 2009, after a long process of sectoral adaptation, and it became fully operational in early 2010.
In the specific case of hake hubbsi, these measures seem to have achieved a certain balance. Catches have stabilised at around 250,000 and 300,000 tonnes since 2009. Since then, catches of this species have always been below the Maximum Allowable Catch (MAC) set by the Federal Fisheries Council (FFC).
Opportunities for the development of the fisheries and aquaculture sector in Argentina
The global context, marked by a sustained increase in aquatic food consumption and a growing trend towards aquaculture, opens up opportunities for the sustainable development of the fisheries and aquaculture sector in Argentina. Our country has the conditions and resources to respond to these demands and thus increase the value of its exports, generating quality employment, boosting local development and contributing foreign currency.
1. Increasing the proportion of certified species
Argentina, like many other countries in the world, is facing the challenge of managing its fishery resources in a responsible manner. At the same time, it is the markets themselves that are demanding higher levels of information that translate into higher quality requirements, such as environmental certifications. This means that balancing the environmental, economic and social dimensions has become fundamental to guarantee a sustainable exploitation of their fishery resources and not lose access to the most demanding markets.
As other global markets move towards fisheries certification, the demand for the sustainability label is likely to increase for Argentinean seafood products, so addressing this issue early may make a difference in the not so distant future.
2. Developing aquaculture in a sustainable way
Faced with the challenge of increasing food production, the oceans can become the main ally. However, as the FAO has warned, the deterioration of fish stocks due to overfishing has become a critical problem. In this context, the sustainable farming of aquatic species, both animal and plant, could be key to feeding the world in a sustainable way.
The opportunities that make this productive activity outstanding -such as the capacity to generate added value, employment and foreign currency-, together with the diversity of climates and environments, the experience accumulated throughout the territory and the growing global demand, offer our country the possibility of betting on the sustainable growth of this sector.
3. Diversify and increase value-added export
As analysed in this document, more than 80% of the exported value is for primary fishery products while less than 20% represents those with a higher degree of processing. This current configuration prevents the country from obtaining a larger share of the income generated by catching and exporting industrialised fishery products.
In addition to this, the high dependence on a few species raises the alarm about a possible disorderly management of these fisheries. In a sector so dependent on export volumes (more for their quantity than for their added value), changes in international markets can seriously affect exports, as well as the social actors directly or indirectly involved in the national fishing industry, making it vulnerable to possible economic crises in importing countries, which can lead to a decrease in demand and prices.
In this sense, it is essential to generate adequate policies to diversify the number of exploited species.
