The National Commission of Aquaculture and Fisheries (Conapesca) reported that between January and mid-October 2012, Sinaloa produced 4,552 tonnes of tilapia, considering both the capture fisheries and aquaculture production.
This volume represents a 28.2 per cent less than the same period last year, when it produced 6,334 tonnes. Despite this marked decrease, Sinaloa remains one of the leading producers of tilapia in Mexico.
According to data provided by Conapesca, this state had a total production of 9,191 tonnes of tilapia in 2010. Just over 91 per cent of this amount, 8,403 tonnes, came from aquaculture. In 2011, the production of farmed tilapia fell to 5,793 tonnes, showing a decrease of 31 per cent yoy.
Meanwhile, capture fisheries contributed last year 541 tonnes of tilapia, that is to say, 31.3 per cent less than in 2010 (788 tonnes). In Sinaloa there are few companies dedicated to the production of tilapia. Last year, among 727 aquaculture production units only 61 made tilapia capture or farming, Noroeste reported.
Nationally, most of the production comes from tilapia aquaculture farms, notes Edmundo Urcelay Gutierrez, National Committee Tilapia Production System manager.
Mexico produces between 76,000 and 80,000 tonnes of tilapia. "This production is generated in three forms of cultivation: in controlled systems that generate approximately 70 per cent, in aquacultural fisheries, 15 per cent, and in what we commonly call extractive activity, which is fishing, between 10 per cent and 15 per cent ," he pointed out.
Mexican production covers about 30-40 per cent of domestic demand, and is supplemented by imports, mainly from China. Today Mexico imports more than 75,000 tonnes of tilapia fillets and between 12,000 and 15,000 tonnes as a whole product, according to Urcelay Gutierrez.
"The most productive States are Veracruz, Sinaloa, Michoacan, Jalisco and Tabasco," he added.
Increasing production is one of the challenges facing Mexican producers. Urcelay Gutierrez argues that it is necessary to double production to displace imported products. But he also emphasizes that production costs must be reduced "at least 25 per cent to be competitive at international prices."
When particularly referring to Sinaloa, the manager said: "We have estimates based on the resources in the state that show that no less than 40,000 to 50,000 tonnes per year of tilapia can be produced in controlled systems. I'm not counting aquacultural fisheries that occur in dams and lagoons; Sinaloa can remain one of the major tilapia producing State in the country."