| Summary: | Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations predicts that worldwide harvest output of aquatic products will be stagnant or decreased whereas the consumption of aquatic products will be increased at the speed of 1.0% to 2.9%. The increase of aquatic product output will mainly be attributed to the development of aquaculture. For a developing country, especially for a country with a large population and fast developing pace as China, aquaculture in the 21st century will not only face favorable developing opportunities but severe challenges as well. 1. A brief introduction to the development of Chinese aquaculture. China has a very long history in aquaculture. Chinese aquaculture industry has witnessed the growth rates of more than 10 percent every year. Since 1989, China's aquatic product output has been in the first place of the world. At present, it accounts for 40% of the world's aquatic product output, among which the aquaculture output accounts for 70% of that of the world. China thus becomes the only fishery country that aquaculture output exceeds fishing yield, with 9 billion US dollars of export volume which accounts for 30% of the total export volume of agricultural products. Export of aquatic products has enhanced China's international competitiveness in the field of fishery, thus promoted the development of domestic aquaculture and aquatic processing. In 2006, the freshwater aquaculture area was 60,200 hectares and the aquaculture output was 19.5 million tons which accounted for 97% of the total output of cultured fishes. Aquaculture is a vibrant industry in China, Chinese aquaculture producers are rapidly upgrading their technology to produce species such as black carps, grass carps, silver carps, bighead carps, tilapia, catfish, eel, shrimp, abalone, sea bass, turbot, sea bream, red drum, crab, flounder, trout, mussels, salmon and more. 2. A major challenge for Chinese aquaculture. China suffers from environmental pollution and a shortage of freshwater resources. The problems of shortage of ...
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