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Courtesy of FIS.com:

The National Commission of Aquaculture and Fisheries (CONAPESCA) has identified about 20 million hectares with high potential for aquaculture, following the performance of 58 aquaculture management projects in 24 federative entities of the country.

In such entities areas that are suitable for farming shrimp, catfish, tilapia, trout, marine fish, clams, oysters and carp, among other resources, were identified.

According to the general coordinator of Operation and Institutional Strategy of CONAPESCA, Alfredo Aranda Ocampo, out of the total identified hectares, 19.3 million hectares have high suitability record and have extensive surface offering average potential to carry out this productive activity.

The official noted noted that in several inner states — Chihuahua, San Luis Potosi and Hidalgo, among others, — large areas were detected with aquaculture suitability.

And he said that other entities with areas offering high suitability are Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sonora, Sinaloa, Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima, Michoacan, Guerrero, Mexico, Morelos, Tlaxcala, Puebla, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Quintana Roo, Yucatan, Campeche , Tabasco, Veracruz, Tamaulipas, Hidalgo, San Luis Potosi and Chihuahua.

Aranda Ocampo ensured the country has aquaculture infrastructure to support productivity because it has 9,230 farms.

Out of that total, some 1,447 are shrimp farms, 4,623 are tilapia centres, 117 are oyster farms, 146 are carp centres, 1,834 are trout farms, 353 are catfish centres and 710 farm other species.

According to statistics of CONAPESCA, while last year the Mexican fishing production increased only 0.4 per cent over 2013, the aquaculture industry registered a production growth amounting to 32.5 per cent.

The value of aquaculture production also increased: in 2014 it reached MXN 10,300 (USD 646.3 million), compared to MXN 7,500 million (USD 470.6 million) in 2013.