Data on imports and exports of fish in thousand USD by country and year.

The Fisheries Committee (COFI) from the Trade and Agriculture Directorate (TAD) collects, on an annual basis from all its participating countries, data on landings, aquaculture production, fleet, employment in the fisheries sector, and government financial transfers. Data are collected from Fisheries Ministries, National Statistics Offices and other institution designated as an official data source.

Data are collected by the OECD using the methodologies established by the Coordinating Working Party on Fishery Statistics (CWP) (www.fao.org/fishery/cwp/search/en). This inter-agency body, created in 1960 to develop common procedures and standards for the collation of fisheries statistics, provides technical advice on fishery statistical matters. Its handbook of Fishery Statistical Standards comprises definitions of the various concepts used in fishery statistics, with the exception of Government Financial Transfers which is unique to the OECD. All other statistics are based on the CWP definitions.

The OECD, a partner with the CWP, additionally collects information on values for its landings and records the breakdown between the types of landings (i.e. landings in domestic ports, landings in foreign ports) data series which are not collected by the FAO. While a number of countries cover landings in a similar fashion, the same does not hold true for capacity (feet/meters, GRT/engine powers), or for employment for which both Full-time equivalents or numbers of people are used. The OECD therefore does not duplicate FAO statistics but requests complementary information to feed its analytical work.

The survey used for this exercise is the "Fisheries database questionnaire".

Data source(s) used:

Comtrade, Harmonised System HS 1988/92.