Production and economic trends of seabream and seabass farming in relation to population growth of Türkiye and Greece

Abstract

The present study aims to evaluate production trends between Turkish and Greek marine aquaculture activities with focus on human resources by population growth. Both Türkiye and Greece are the main drivers of marine aquaculture industry in the southern European Seas according to FAO statistics, with a remarkable supply of marine fish to meet the growing food demand of the drastically increasing world population. In regards to growth trends and economic performance, human resources play an important role for the continuity of the sustainable development, and safety of the aquaculture industry. Two main fish species in production, namely Gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata) and European seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax) were used for the comparative evaluation of growth trends and value indices with superimposed figures on population growth over the last two decades from 2003 to 2023. Greek marine fish harvest increased by 1.54-fold between 2003-2023. The figure for the Turkish aquaculture showed 8.35-fold increase for the same time span. Even though Greece recorded 52.79% higher fish production in 2003 compared to the Turkish marine harvest, the latter supplied 34.84% higher fish harvest in 2023, compared to the Greek production. In regards to economic gains, Turkish production of seabream and seabass was 2.86-fold of the Greek production for the same species in 2023. The correlation between fish harvest yields and population growth for the Turkish aquaculture was remarkably strong (R= 0.938). Greece however demonstrated a negative correlation of R= -0.667 for the same variables investigated. The results of this study indicate that not only production volume but also human resources play a significant role in production gains. Besides a variety of factors influencing aquaculture production, human resources may create a rupture in a competitive environment, which is encouraged to be considered in the management and production planning of aquaculture enterprises.