August 9, 2013 — Recently released data from the U-N indicates that the prices paid for wild-caught and farmed fish continue to diverge from each other.
The Food and Agricultural Organization, which is part of the U-N, reports that the price index for wild fish nearly doubled between 1990 and last year. During the same time-frame the price index for farmed fish increased by one fifth. There are a number of factors that could account for the difference including the farmed fish production continues to increase while the amount of wild-caught fish has remained fairly steady for the past 20-years.
Global farmed fish production has been increasing for decades and now is comparable to the word-wide production of beef. That has led the sellers of wild-caught fish to target their marketing efforts towards higher end customers and into niche markets that can support a higher price for a premium, high-quality product.
Read the full story and listen to the audio at NPR affiliate KDLG