The Economic Geographies of Aquaculture

Abstract

Fish protein is projected to make up increasing proportions of our protein intake in the years to come with increasing supply coming from aquaculture. Despite its fast increasing economic importance, there is a relative paucity of research on aquaculture from the standpoint of economic geography. This paper contributes to this literature by first reviewing the socio‐economics of certification of fish and the role of aquaculture in economic development – two of the more pervasive research strands in aquaculture. Following that, we show how global commodity chain perspectives can augment geographical research on aquaculture. We argue that despite some shortcomings, the global commodity chain approach is a viable approach to examine the aquaculture industry because of its ability to elucidate the uneven and contested nature of commodity and other resource flows between the production, distribution, and consumption nodes and its potential to analyze the impacts of the wider regulatory and institutional environment on the industry.

Production without medicalisation: Risk practices and disease in Bangladesh aquaculture

“…Aquaculture, or the farming of aquatic organisms, is the world's fastest growing food and protein producing sector, displacing capture fisheries as the principal global source of aquatic protein, accounting for 64% of total fisheries sales (FAO, 2018; Lim & Neo, 2014). In the last few decades, the overwhelming majority (90%) of this growth has been focused in Asia, and has been associated with numerous benefits, including export‐led rural development and increased access to dietary protein.…”

The expansion of intensive marine aquaculture in Turkey: The next‐to‐last commodity frontier?

“…Although some critical studies on global aquaculture conduct commodity chain or value chain analysis to understand global dynamics between the production and consumption of seafood (Jespersen, Kelling, Ponte, & Kruijssen, ; Lim & Neo, ; Ponte, Kelling, Jespersen, & Kruijssen, ), global value chain literature usually focuses on relations of exchange—rather than on production—(Baglioni & Campling, ), and such research mostly emphasizes value creation processes (Quentin & Campling, ) or certification mechanisms. Our aim on the other hand is focusing on the expansionary dynamics of production through commodity frontiers approach but meanwhile incorporating the study of how changes in production influence and are influenced by aquaculture firms' simultaneous strategies regarding control over markets—what we call commodity marketing strategies—and how they lead to further horizontal, vertical, and taxonomic expansions parallel to the transformation of seafood production.…”

Value chain upgrading: Evidence from the Singaporean aquaculture industry

“…For these researchers, economic upgrading occurs through intra-chain or functional upgrading (moving up the same value chain from a more marginal to a more secure position when a firm increases the range of functions performed), product upgrading (producing more sophisticated goods with higher unit prices), process upgrading (improving technology and/or production systems), and inter-chain upgrading (moving from one industry to another) [17]. However, the economic upgrading narrative is increasingly challenged as a more multidimensional viewpoint on this subject has emerged in recent years [18]. More specifically, Challies [19] argues that it is imperative to engage with the actors at the roots of the value chains to understand the local implications of chain dynamics in terms of the distribution of opportunities and challenges.…”