Ornamental Fish international

•There is no doubt that 2020 has been a challenging year for the world in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. The ornamental fish industry has seen mixed effects; international supply chains have been severely effected with the massive reductions of international flights due to border restrictions around the world. These flights are the life blood of our supply chain, with exporters from major production countries in Asia/pacific having no other options for shipping product to international markets.

•However, the supply chain has adapted and while freights costs have risen significantly fish have still been flowing through the chain to the major markets. While the supply chain has experienced this disruption, demand for fish appears to have experienced an upsurge in most markets around the world as people have turned to home based activities during various COVID-19 social distancing and lockdown restrictions, with many industry sources reporting significant increase in sales of ornamental fish and associated products – many major players report best year ever and increases of 20 to 40%

•This also comes on the tail of an increase in the export value of ornamental fish, with UN Co mtrade data indicating that the export value that export values increased from  2018 to in 2019, with many industry sources reporting significant increases in trade on the previous year, I hope that we are seeing a revival of our industry and some significant growth after a period of relative stagnation in the years since the Global Financial crisis.