Journal of Shellfish Research, Vol. 35, No. 3, 581–583, 2016.
RECENT TRENDS IN WORLDWIDE ABALONE PRODUCTION
PETER A. COOK*
Center of Excellence in Natural Resource Management, University of Western Australia, P.O. Box 5771,
Albany, Western Australia 6332, Australia
ABSTRACT In recent years, the total quantity of abalone produced on farms worldwide has increased significantly while
abalone fisheries have declined. Fishery production was almost 20,000 metric tons (mt) in the 1970s but was only about 6,500 mt
in 2015. Over the same period, farm production has increased from negligible quantities in the 1970s to 129,287 mt in 2015,
the majority being produced in China and South Korea. Illegal exploitation, particularly in South Africa, Australia, and New
Zealand, is still a major problem. Prices on the world market fell during the Global Financial Crisis, but now appear to be
increasing again.
KEY WORDS: abalone, production, fisheries, aquaculture, markets
INTRODUCTION
th
At the 9 International Abalone Symposium, held in Korea
in October 2015, representatives of various countries were
invited to present data on abalone production in their region.
This paper presents a review of the information provided at the
symposium (quoting several of the presentations as ‘‘personal
communications’’), and also quotes figures from published
Food and Agriculture Organization statistics (FAO 2015). In
all cases, figures are adjusted to represent ‘‘in shell’’ weight.
In recent decades, the total quantity of abalone produced on
farms worldwide has increased significantly while abalone
obtained from fisheries has declined. Comparing current trends
in supply and demand with those of the 1970s, when world
abalone fisheries were at their height, is of limited value because,
in those days, abalone fisheries were virtually unregulated, the
illegal catch was insignificant, and abalone farming was only
just beginning (Cook & Gordon 2010). The situation today is
very different, and significant changes in abalone production
statistics have occurred. This paper examines recent trends in
abalone production from all sources, and discusses how these
production trends have affected the international abalone
market.
The various categories of abalone production are based on
those defined by Gordon and Cook (2004) and include abalone
fisheries (the total legal allowable annual commercial catch);
cultured abalone (includes both the farming of abalone on land
or in sea cages); and the illegal catch (any harvest of abalone
beyond total allowable annual fishing quotas).
PRODUCTION FROM FISHERIES AND FARMS
Legal landings from abalone fisheries have gradually decreased from almost 20,000 metric tons (mt) in the 1970s to only
about 6,500 mt in 2015 (Table 1). Overexploitation, illegal
harvesting, disease, increased predation, and habitat degradation have all contributed to this decline. Following such declines, several fisheries have suffered severe quota restrictions,
or have been completely de-commercialized. In California, for
example, the commercial exploitation of all species of abalone
has been prohibited since 1997, and while a small recreational
*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
DOI: 10.2983/035.035.0302
fishery still remains open north of the Golden Gate Bridge, the
commercial fishery has remained closed (California Department of Fish and Wildlife 2014). The California Department of
Fish and Wildlife is developing a red abalone (Haliotis rufescens) Fishery Management Plan, the purpose of which is to
further refine and implement long-term management objectives,
with the hope that the fishery may, one day, be reopened. The
abalone fishery in Australia has also declined over the past few
years but, in this case, the decline was due to the outbreak of
a serious abalone disease in both farmed and wild stocks
(Mayfield et al. 2011).
Another example of a fishery in trouble is that in South
Africa, where abalone populations (Haliotis midae) have suffered from many years of illegal overexploitation by poachers.
As a result of this, the fishery was de-commercialized in 2008.
Although the fishery was recently reopened to a small (150 mt)
experimental quota, its future remains uncertain for as long as
the illegal exploitation continues (P. Britz, personal communication, 2015) Although some countries, such as South Africa
and Canada, are attempting to rebuild stocks, it seems unlikely
that fisheries will ever be restored to former levels (Lessard &
Campbell 2007).
At the same time as landings from legal fisheries were
declining, farm production was rapidly expanding in several
countries (Table 1). In the 1970s, farm production was almost
negligible, and although production increased steadily throughout the 1980s and 1990s, it is only since about 2000 that the
really big increases have taken place as countries such as China
and South Korea started farming abalone.
Table 2 shows changes in abalone production in various
countries between 2010 and 2015. While farm production in
most countries, over this period, has either been stable or grown
very slowly, production in China and Korea has increased very
rapidly. In contrast, however, in both Chile and Taiwan the
volume of production has decreased over this period, in both
cases following disease problems.
The most significant change has been in China where the
majority of the worldÕs abalone are now produced. In 2010,
there were over 300 abalone farms in China, with the largest
producing over 1,000 mt/y. Although falling prices and Chinese
austerity measures have resulted in the closure of some farms,
the total production for 2015 is now estimated at 115,397 mt/y
(C. Ke, personal communication, 2015). Over the past few
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COOK
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TABLE 1.
Total global production (mt) of abalone from legal fisheries
and farms.
Year
Fished
Farmed
1970
1989
2002
2008
2010
2011
2013
2015
19,720
14,830
10,146
7,869
7,242
No data
7,242
6,500
50
1,220
8,700
30,760
65,344
85,300
123,154
129,287
years, many Chinese abalone farms have become more efficient
by changing from land-based to sea-cage operations, and
innovations in low-cost seed production have helped to establish a viable industry. Abalone in sea cages are generally fed
a mixture of seaweeds, much of which is grown on farms at
nearby locations. Although disadvantages of sea-based farms
include that the nets are subject to biofouling that requires
regular cleaning of cages, and that farms are subject to the
vagaries of sea conditions, abalone in sea cages can be grown to
market size at much lower costs than in land-based farms.
The southern Chinese provinces of Fujian and Guangdong
are the favored locations of most farms while the majority of
abalone seed production occurs between Dalian and Shandong
Peninsula in the Northern Province of Liaoning. In 2004,
Fujian Province accounted for over 60% of all abalone produced and sold in China, and a significant proportion of the
Fujian total was the lower value species, Haliotis diversicolor
supertexta, which were generally sold for less than US$20/kg.
In 2015, the situation was quite different with more than 95%
of production being of the higher value species, either Haliotis
discus hannai or a hybrid between H. discus hannai and Haliotis
discus discus. This change was probably brought about because
H. discus hannai is the preferred species in Japan, and China is
now beginning to export part of its production to Japan (China
Fisheries Bureau 2014).
TABLE 2.
Estimated farm production (mt) in various regions in 2010
and 2015.
Region
2010 production
2015 production
China
Korea
Chile
South Africa
Japan (seeds only)
Australia
Taiwan
United States
(including Hawaii)
New Zealand
Mexico
Europe
Thailand
Philippines
42,373
5,000
1,500
1,023
200
500
300
200
115,397
9,400
700
1,400
200
900
171
362
90
33
10
10
4
100
30
15
8
4
There are many challenges to abalone farming in China.
Mass mortalities have occurred in nursery and postlarval seed
production facilities in both the northern and southern regions,
and summer mortality remains a major problem for Haliotis
discus hannai in most bays in southern China. Extreme weather
events, such as very cold water in the northern regions, and
typhoons and red tides in the southern regions, have caused
high mortalities of adults in grow-out systems. In Fujian and
Guangdong, abalone farms are usually crowded very close
together, with individual bays sometimes housing hundreds of
net cages. This leads to a situation where the potential for the
spread of disease is huge, and it seems likely that, should a serious
disease outbreak occurs, this could spread very quickly.
Over the past decade or so, Korea has become an important
supplier of abalone to the world market. Before 2000, only small
quantities of abalone were farmed, and the production method
mainly used suspended baskets in land-based farms. Like
China, production in Korea has evolved to a more efficient
methodology, utilizing off-shore cage farms (Y. B. Park,
personal communication). This change has resulted in rapid
increases in volume of production, going from about 1,000 mt in
2003 to 9,400 mt in 2014 (Y. B. Park, personal communication).
In Korea, abalone seeds are produced in about 500 hatcheries, and juveniles are reared using approximately 500,000 sea
cages (Park & Kim 2013). The majority of Korean production
is in remote Wando County in South Jeolla Province. While
the majority of abalone is consumed in domestic markets, the
volume being exported to countries, such as Japan, China, the
United States, and Taiwan, has increased from about 70 mt in
2004 and 1,115 mt in 2014 (Y. B. Park, personal communication). This has had an important influence on the world market
because the majority of Korean production is Haliotis discus
hannai, the species that is most popular, and commands the
highest price, in the Japanese market.
Farm production of abalone in Korea has not been without
its problems. High mortalities at the seed production phase, and
slow growth rates in grow-out tanks, have plagued the industry
for many years. Recent developments in selective breeding
programs may, however, improve future production efficiency
(Park & Kim 2013).
Farmed abalone production in the United States (including
Hawaii) currently totals about 362 mt (R. Fields, personal
communication). It is unlikely, however, that total production
along the Californian coast will increase much in the future
because of very high land values and high compliance costs. In
Europe, abalone farming is a very small, but growing, industry.
Farms are located in the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands,
Ireland, France, and Spain. In the United Kingdom, a small
number of farms are located on the south coast of England, but
these are mainly at the experimental level and production is
currently insignificant. In Ireland, farms are also mainly
experimental, producing mostly Haliotis discus hannai, but it
seems unlikely that production will exceed about 3 mt in the
near future, whereas in the Channel Islands, there are two
farming companies currently producing less than 1 mt. French
farms are located in Brittany and Vendee, and these have the
advantage of being located in regions where small, natural
populations of abalone occur and have been fished for some
years. Farm production from the French farms is likely to
increase over the next few years, but the most significant
increase in European abalone production is likely to come from
RECENT TRENDS IN WORLDWIDE ABALONE PRODUCTION
the farm that is developing in Spain, which plans to greatly
expand production over the next few years. Total combined
production from all European farms is currently less than
30 mt/y. Abalone farming in Europe currently suffers from
fragmentation of the industry into many small individual
operations. A recently introduced project called ‘‘SUDEVAB’’
is a serious attempt to improve this; the objectives include the
development of a transnational organization of European
Abalone Producers. If this initiative succeeds, it may help farms
to achieve overall lower production costs.
Other countries that produce significant quantities of farmed
abalone are Chile, Japan, South Africa, Australia, Taiwan, and
New Zealand, with smaller quantities being produced in
Mexico, Thailand, the Philippines, and Oman.
A discussion of the availability of abalone to the world
market would not be complete without mention of the illegal
trade. Cook and Gordon (2010) suggested that in 2008, the
worldwide illegal catch totaled about 5,300 mt, representing
over 60% of the total legal catch from fisheries. The majority of
the illegal catch comes from South Africa, Australia, and New
Zealand, with smaller quantities originating from the United
States, Mexico, and Chile. Sustained efforts to reduce poaching
in several of these countries have yielded some positive results,
but there is no doubt that the large quantities of illegal catch
that still enter the world market have a seriously destabilizing
effect on trade.
THE WORLD ABALONE MARKET
The total supply of abalone available to the world market in
2015 was more than five times of that which was available in the
1970s. This, of course, has resulted from huge increases in farm
production. What effect this will have on the international
abalone market is a question that has often been asked. China is
both a major producer and consumer of abalone, and while
China has often been regarded as a huge marketing opportunity, overproduction in China could also represent a risk that
may swamp world markets. Although it is expected that
Chinese farm production will continue to increase, the rate of
increase in production is expected to slow (China Fisheries
Bureau 2014).
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Prices paid for farmed abalone on the world market are
affected by a number of different factors including the species
cultured, the country of origin, the size at which the animals are
marketed, and the quality of the meat. In Chinese and Japanese
markets, Haliotis discus hannai is the most valuable species and,
in general, larger size animals command higher prices per
kilogram. Considering the recent huge increases in farm production in China, it might have been expected that this would
create an oversupply in world markets and, consequently,
reduce market prices. A large percentage of the Chinese production is, however, sold and consumed within China (China
Fisheries Bureau 2014), and the overall influence of China on
the world abalone market has, therefore, been less than some
may have expected. Prices fell by as much as 30% between
about 2008 and 2012, but the Global Financial Crisis was the
main reason for this (Cook & Gordon 2010), rather than an
oversupply of product. The fall in price together with the
outbreak of several diseases reduced confidence in abalone
farming in China and, during that time, several farms ceased to
operate, or turned to the production of alternative species.
The future of abalone farming, both in China and the rest of
the world, and the predicted level of production are still the
subject of much speculation. What is certain, however, is that
to be competitive in the future, farms both inside and outside
of China will need to reduce the cost of production by the
implementation of more efficient production methods, in
particular, by reducing the costs of labor and by the use of less
expensive and more efficient feeds. Recently, some farms have
adopted international environmental certification standards,
and besides the possibility that this will increase market access,
it may also help them to improve efficiency and reduce production costs.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I acknowledge the following persons for providing data on
abalone production in their country or region: Ricardo SearcyBernal, Mexico; Nicholas Savva, Australia; Peter Britz, South
Africa; Yong-Baek Park and Jin-Woo Seong, Korea; Laura
Rogers-Bennett and Ray Fields, United States; Tom McCowan,
New Zealand; Gercende Courtois de Vicose, Europe.
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China: Agricultural Press of China (in Chinese).
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http://www.fao.org/fishery/statistics/global-aquaculture-production/
query/en, http://www.fao.org/fishery/statistics/global-capture-production/
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