Globalization and commoditization: The transformation of the seafood market

The seafood market has changed dramatically in recent decades. Increased trade has created a global market for groups of species with similar characteristics, and the number of species that are becoming part of these global market segments continue to grow. Increased trade and stagnating landings of wild fish has also facilitated the rapid growth of the aquaculture industry and made it the world's fastest growing food production technology. The growth in aquaculture has been sufficient to also increase the per capita consumption of seafood globally. These two factors have allowed scale, modern logistics and marketing practices to be used also for seafood, increasingly commoditizing the main species groups.