The National Commission of Aquaculture and Fisheries (CONAPESCA) has identified 20 million hectares with high potential for aquaculture development in Mexico.

These areas have been found suitable for the cultivation of shrimp, catfish, tilapia, trout, marine fish, clams, oysters and carp, said the general coordinator of Operation and Institutional Strategy CONAPESCA, Alfredo Ocampo Aranda.

Inland states like Chihuahua, San Luis Potosi and Hidalgo, among others, have large areas that are suitable for aquaculture production.

Other areas identified as being suitable were in Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sonora, Sinaloa, Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima, Michoacan, Guerrero, Mexico, Morelos, Tlaxcala, Puebla, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Quintana Roo, Yucatan, Campeche, Tabasco, Veracruz and Tamaulipas.

These are regions that have increasing volumes of fish which are produced in response to the domestic consumption demand.

Mr Aranda Ocampo noted that Mexico offers aquaculture infrastructure to support productivity, because it has 9,230 farms, of which 1,447 are shrimp, 4,623 tilapia, 117 oyster, 146 tent, 834 trout, 710 catfish and 353 other species.

In 2014, Mexico\'s national fish production recorded an increase of 0.4 per cent over the previous year, while aquaculture grew by 32.5 per cent.

In the same period the value of aquaculture production also increased, generating more than 10,300 million pesos against 7,500 million in 2013, said Mr Aranda Ocampo.

Source: TheFishSite