Aquaculture in Hawaii achieved record sales last year, according to a recent government tally.
A new U.S. Department of Agriculture report said the value of farm-raised marine animal sales in
Hawaii last year reached $83.2 million to eclipse the prior high of $78.2 million in 2014.
Last year’s increase
appeared driven by sales of fish, while the value of microalgae sales fell.
The report combined the value of finfish and shellfish into a broader category of “other” so as not to disclose data that could identify sales for an individual farm. The sales value for this category was
$47.9 million, up from
$41.2 million in 2017.
For algae largely produced by companies selling nutritional supplement products, sales totaled $32.7 million last year, down from $35.2 million in 2017.
The USDA did not have comparable figures for 2018 because it used a
different method to gauge industry sales. Overall,
Hawaii’s 2018 aquaculture industry sales value was $78.4 million, but the agency said it is not appropriate to compare that with other recent years.
Reports for last year and past years other than 2018 and 2013 were produced by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service with assistance from the state Department of Agriculture.
For the first time in
recent years, the report
included a value for ornamental marine life sales last year. This figure was
$2.6 million.
Animals raised by farms based on land or in the ocean around the state include shrimp, oysters, clams, moi, tilapia, kampachi, koi, angelfish and more.
In 2012 there were about 70 aquaculture farms. But the report hasn’t included a farm count since then.
The report does list an annual peak number of workers in the industry, and this reached 369 last year, which was lower than 462 in 2017, 500 in 2016 and 406 in 2015.