Utilising the data collated by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation’s GLOBEFISH unit, an analysis was conducted for the five -year period of 2012–2016 on the global trends of the toothfish trade and to assess the extent to which the Catch Documentation Scheme (CDS) for Dissostichus spp. Captures the global trade of toothfish.
The analysis showed that over this five-year period quantity of imports globally have seen an increase of 16.08% and exports have seen an increase in 15.54%. The average global unit value price of toothfish products has also shown an increase with imports increasing by 19.68% and exports by 24.58%. The United States of America (USA) were the largest importers accounting for 44.42% of the quantity. France were the largest exporters accounting for 16.63% of the quantity, closely followed by Chile (15.41%) and Mauritius (14.87%).
The application of the MPP methodology allowed for an estimation of global trade through utilising reported trade relationships. The MPP methodology estimated the USA as still the largest importer of quantity (29.72%), but a prevalence of imports in Southeast Asia with Viet Nam (10.82%) and Singapore (10.32%) making the top three importers. The largest exporters were estimated to be Australia (13.85%), Chile (13.62%) and Mauritius (9.45%).
This analysis demonstrated that over the five-year period the quantity of toothfish reported to the CDS is 2.70% higher then what States reported importing and 4.60% higher then what they reported to export. However, there are differences in the trade patterns between the two datasets so while the quantities may be similar, this is simply an artefact of the analysis as it is clear that there are differences between the two datasets.
This analysis contributes to the ongoing work of the Commission to improve the effectiveness of the CDS and detect, deter and eliminate IUU fishing.