Mexican Farmed Bluefin Exports Fall By 40% ff

The total production of the Mexican fishing sector, from January to October 2007, showed a drop in production of 31% when compared to last year's figures. This fall was mainly due to a decline in sardine and bluefin tuna catches.

Preliminary data from the Subdelegation Fishery in Baja California show that sardine, which represents the main catches in Mexico, represented 23,000 tons during the first 10 months of 2007, compared to the quantity caught during this same period in 2006, which was of 48,000 tons.

This represents a drop of 51% over the previous year for a species which is currently mainly used to feed the bluefin tuna at the tuna fattening farms. 

But not only did the Mexican Fishery report a decline in sardines, also bluefin tuna, the species which is kept in farms for fattening and then is exported to Japan, showed a production decline of almost 40%, from 9300 tons to 5500 tons.

Other species that fell in production were skipjack, bonito, swordfish and shrimp.