Fish caught at sea, fish and shellfish farmed in marine waters, and the processing of these products by the food manufacturing industry all supply communities with food and nutrition from the ocean. This chapter examines marine fishing, aquaculture and processing using the OECD’s estimates of ocean economic activity.
The Ocean Economy at a Glance
Abstract
Marine fishing, aquaculture and processing grew more slowly than the ocean economy between 1995 and 2025 and lost share within it. It generated USD 305 billion of gross value added in real terms in 2025, up 114% from 1995, compared with 132% for the ocean economy. Its share of ocean economy gross value added fell from 11.7% to 9.0%.
Marine aquaculture drove its growth and became its second-largest sub-activity. Aquaculture rose from 13.4% to 31.6% of its gross value added between 1995 and 2025 and contributed more to its real growth after 2008 than any other sub-activity.
The bulk of marine fishing, aquaculture and processing activity moved from OECD Asia to non-OECD Asia over the period. Non-OECD Asia’s share of its world gross value added rose from 27.8% to 57.4%. The People’s Republic of China (hereafter “China”) became the largest generator of gross value added in 2006 and produced 27.7% of the world total in 2025. Non-OECD Asia now generates more than half of world gross value added.
Its employment fell by a third between 1995 and 2025 while its labour productivity more than tripled. Full-time equivalents decreased from 31.5 million in 1995 to 20.5 million in 2025, with China accounting for 72% of the fall. Real gross value added per full-time equivalent job increased by 230%, four times the rise in the overall economy.
Economies converged in their dependence on marine fishing, aquaculture and processing. Its share of national gross value added fell in two-thirds of economies between 1995 and 2025 and by most where it had been highest. In current prices, gross value added per full-time equivalent job in the OECD area fell from 11 times the level outside the OECD area at the start of the period to just 3 times its level at the end of the period.
Marine fishing, aquaculture and processing generated gross value added (GVA) of USD 305 billion in real terms in 2025, 114% more than in 1995, but grew more slowly than the ocean economy (Figure 3.1). Its share of ocean economy GVA fell from 11.7% to 9.0% in current prices over the period. The ocean economy grew by 133% in real terms over the period. Had marine fishing, aquaculture and processing grown at the ocean economy’s rate, its GVA would have reached USD 330 billion in real terms in 2025. Its share of ocean economy GVA was lowest in 2008 at 7.3% and highest in 2020 at 11.9%. Fishing, aquaculture and processing does not appear to have been affected as much as the ocean economy overall during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Gross value added, USD billions in real terms, plus as a share of ocean economy gross value added, %, current prices, 1995-2025
Note: Panel A shows the gross value added of marine fishing, aquaculture and processing in real terms. The dotted line gives the level it would have reached had it grown at the real growth rate of the ocean economy since 1995. Panel B shows its share of ocean economy gross value added in current prices. Gross value added is given at basic prices. Real terms are chain-linked volumes in previous years’ prices set to a 2022 reference year. The dotted vertical lines in panel B mark 2008 and 2020, the years of the lowest and the highest share. Data for 2025 are a projection.
Source: OECD (2026), OCEANSTAT: OECD estimates of ocean economic activity.
The bulk of marine fishing, aquaculture and processing activity moved from OECD Asia to non-OECD Asia between 1995 and 2025 (Figure 3.2). Non-OECD Asia’s share of its world GVA rose from 27.8% to 57.4%. OECD Asia’s fell from 33.3% to 7.3%. OECD Asia’s share decreased to half its 1995 level by 2007 and to a quarter by 2021. Non-OECD Asia has been the largest producing region since 1996. Non-OECD economies as a whole have produced more than the OECD area since 2003. The OECD area’s share decreased from 58.5% to 25.3% over the period, with far smaller falls in OECD Europe and OECD Americas than in OECD Asia. OECD Asia therefore accounts for 78% of the decline in the OECD area’s share of marine fishing, aquaculture and processing.
Share of each regional group in world gross value added of marine fishing, aquaculture and processing, %, current prices, 1995-2025
Note: Regional groups are the UN M49 regions split by OECD membership, stacked with the OECD groups below the non-OECD groups, so that the black line is the OECD area’s share. Gross value added is given at basic prices in current prices. Regional and world totals include economies that are not identified separately in the experimental ocean economy supply and use tables. The dotted line marks 2003, the first year in which non-OECD economies produced more than the OECD area. Data for 2025 are a projection.
Source: OECD (2026), OCEANSTAT: OECD estimates of ocean economic activity.
Marine aquaculture grew fastest in real terms of the sub-activities of marine fishing, aquaculture and processing between 1995 and 2025 and contributed most to its real growth in the 2008-2019 and 2019-2025 periods (Figure 3.3). Its GVA grew by 4.8% a year, compared with 2.6% for marine fishing, aquaculture and processing as a whole and 2.8% for the ocean economy. This is more than three times the rate of marine capture fishing, the largest sub-activity by GVA. Marine fish processing grew by 2.7% a year and contributed most to the real growth of marine fishing, aquaculture and processing in the 1995-2008 period. In the 2019-2025 period aquaculture contributed 1.1 p.p. a year, more than capture fishing and processing together. Aquaculture therefore accounted for 61% of the real growth of marine fishing, aquaculture and processing since 2019.
Average annual real growth of gross value added, %, 1995-2025, plus average annual contributions to the real growth of the component, percentage points
Note: Panel A shows average annual real growth of gross value added between 1995 and 2025. Panel B shows annual average contributions to the annual real growth of marine fishing, aquaculture and processing. Gross value added is given at basic prices. Real terms are chain-linked volumes in previous years’ prices set to a 2022 reference year. Data for 2025 are a projection.
Source: OECD (2026), OCEANSTAT: OECD estimates of ocean economic activity.
Marine capture fishing generated the largest share of the GVA of marine fishing, aquaculture and processing in every year between 1995 and 2025, although its share fell over the period (Figure 3.4). Its share fell from 49.7% in 1995 to 37.6% in 2025. Marine aquaculture’s share rose from 13.4% to 31.6%, the largest gain, most of it during the 2008-2019 period (8.4 p.p.). It passed marine fish processing in 2021 to become the second largest activity by GVA and has stayed ahead since. Marine fish processing’s share fell from 36.9% to 30.8%, most of the fall during the 2008-2019 period.
Share of each activity in the gross value added of marine fishing, aquaculture and processing, %, current prices, 1995-2025
Note: Gross value added is given at basic prices in current prices. Shares are calculated of the sum of the four activities’ gross value added in current prices. Data for 2025 are a projection.
Source: OECD (2026), OCEANSTAT: OECD estimates of ocean economic activity.
The People’s Republic of China (hereafter “China”) became the largest generator of marine fishing, aquaculture and processing GVA in 2006 (Figure 3.5). It represents 27.7% of the world total in 2025. In current prices China’s GVA in marine fishing, aquaculture and processing was USD 82.8 billion in 2025 and Indonesia’s USD 35.7 billion, compared with USD 14.5 billion for Japan. Viet Nam rose from 29th among economies in 1995 to sixth in 2025. Four of the ten largest marine fishing, aquaculture and processing economies are OECD Members: Japan, Norway, the United States, and Chile. The economies that rose furthest in the ranking are outside the OECD area.
Gross value added of the ten largest economies in 2025, USD billions, current prices, plus shares of the three largest economies in world gross value added, %, current prices, 1995-2025
Note: Panel A ranks economies by their gross value added in marine fishing, aquaculture and processing in 2025, with their 1995 values as pale bars and their 1995 rank in brackets. Panel B shows the shares of world gross value added of the three economies that have been the largest. Gross value added is given at basic prices in current prices. Economies that are not identified separately in the experimental ocean economy supply and use tables are not ranked. Dark bars indicate OECD Members. The dotted lines in panel B mark 2006 and 2017, the first years in which China and then Indonesia produced more than Japan. Data for 2025 are a projection.
Source: OECD (2026), OCEANSTAT: OECD estimates of ocean economic activity.
Marine fishing, aquaculture and processing employed 20.5 million full-time equivalents (FTEs) in 2025, 35% fewer than in 1995, with marine capture fisheries in China accounting for most of the fall (Figure 3.6). Marine capture fishing lost 10.1 million FTEs between 1995 and 2025, two-thirds of them in China. Marine aquaculture FTEs decreased by 1.9 million. Marine fish processing was the only sub-activity in which FTEs increased and gained 961 000 almost all outside China. China still employed 6.5 million FTEs in 2025, more than the next four largest employers, Indonesia, Viet Nam, India and the Philippines, combined. The United States, which was third among economies in 1995, was seventh in 2025. Nigeria, Bangladesh, Mexico and Brazil complete the ten largest employers. Although processing FTEs increased over the period, marine fishing, aquaculture and processing now employs fewer FTEs overall and the fall mostly occurred in capture fishing in China.
Change in full-time equivalents between 1995 and 2025, millions, plus full-time equivalents of the ten largest employers in 1995 and 2025, millions
Note: Panel A shows the change in full-time equivalents between 1995 and 2025 by sub-activity, split between China and all other economies. Panel B ranks economies by their full-time equivalents in marine fishing, aquaculture and processing in 2025, with markers showing their 1995 full-time equivalents and their 1995 rank among economies in brackets. Dark bars indicate OECD Members. Economies that are not identified separately in the experimental ocean economy supply and use tables are not ranked. Data for 2025 are a projection.
Source: OECD (2026), OCEANSTAT: OECD estimates of ocean economic activity.
Labour productivity in marine fishing, aquaculture and processing more than tripled in real terms between 1995 and 2025, four times the rise in the overall economy (Figure 3.7). The economies outside the OECD area closed most of their gap with the OECD area. Labour productivity as measured by real terms GVA per FTE rose by 230% over the period, compared with 58% in the overall economy. Outside the OECD area it rose by 324% and within it by 146%. In current prices, GVA per FTE in the OECD area was 11.1 times the level outside it in 1995 and 3.1 times in 2025. The typical country’s GVA per FTE was double the world level in 2025. The world level is low because the economies outside the OECD area, where each FTE produced less GVA, employ most of the FTEs in marine fishing, aquaculture and processing.
Gross value added per full-time equivalent, real terms index 1995 = 100, plus ratios of the OECD area’s level to the non-OECD level and of the typical country’s level to the world level, current prices, 1995-2025
Note: Panel A shows gross value added per full-time equivalent in real terms as an index with 1995 equal to 100 and the same for the overall economy. Panel B shows the ratio of gross value added per full-time equivalent in the OECD area to that in non-OECD economies and the ratio of the typical country’s level to the world level in current prices. World combines both OECD and non-OECD economies. Real terms are chain-linked volumes in previous years’ prices set to a 2022 reference year. The typical country is the median economy. Data for 2025 are a projection.
Source: OECD (2026), OCEANSTAT: OECD estimates of ocean economic activity.
Dependence on marine fishing, aquaculture and processing narrowed across economies between 1995 and 2025 (Figure 3.8). Its share of national GVA fell in two-thirds of economies. Its share of national FTEs fell in 83%. In Iceland, where marine fishing, aquaculture and processing accounted for the highest share of any national economy in 1995 at 15.2%, it represented 5.6% of national GVA in 2025. Its share of Iceland’s FTEs also decreased, from 12.0% to 4.0%. An economy in which the share of GVA was 10 percentage points higher in 1995 saw, on average, a fall 5.2 p.p. larger by 2025. For the share of FTEs, the fall was 6.2 p.p. larger. Dependence on marine fishing, aquaculture and processing for GVA and for jobs has therefore narrowed across economies.
Change in shares of each economy’s national gross value added and in its full-time equivalents between 1995 and 2025, percentage points, plotted against shares in 1995, %, current prices
Note: Panel A plots the change between 1995 and 2025 in the share of marine fishing, aquaculture and processing in each economy’s gross value added against its share in 1995. Panel B does the same for its share of full-time equivalents. Gross value added is given at basic prices in current prices. Dark markers indicate OECD Members. The lines are least-squares regressions of the change on the 1995 share, with a slope of -0.52 and an R-squared of 0.77 in panel A and a slope of -0.62 and an R-squared of 0.89 in panel B. Data for 2025 are a projection.
Source: OECD (2026), OCEANSTAT: OECD estimates of ocean economic activity.
Further reading
OECD (2025), OECD Review of Fisheries 2025, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/560cd8fc-en
OECD (2025), The Ocean Economy to 2050, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/a9096fb1-en
OECD (2025), “How can government spending better support productive and resilient fisheries?”, OECD Policy Briefs, No. 19, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/f9617075-en
OECD and FAO (2025), OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2025-2034, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/f1f71f35-en