The Chinese Tilapia Value Chain
Tilapia was first introduced in China in the 1950’s. Tilapia became a popular aquaculture practice since 1994. The production of tilapia in China was 1.3 million MT in 2013. It mainly produced in Guangxi, Guangdong, Hainan, Fujian and Yunnan provinces, where belong to the sub-tropic of geographic distribution. The total tilapia production was 155 million MT in 2012. The major 5 provinces contribute more than 95% of the total Tilapia production in China.
Tilapia production of China in 2013 is shown in the graph to the right:
The table below shows China Tilapia production by provinces in 2012:
| Province | Production (MT) | Percentage (%) |
| Guangdong | 664,647 | 42.80 |
| Hainan | 331,918 | 21.38 |
| Guangxi | 265,268 | 17.08 |
| Fujian | 123,081 | 7.93 |
| Yunnan | 99,267 | 6.39 |
| Other | 68,552 | 4.41 |
| Total | 1,552,733 | 100.0 |
Data sourceļ¼China fishery yearbook 2013
Tilapia production chain consists the component from seed to processing. It mainly include the seed production, grow out farming, capture, processing, and marketing. It also include the support chain, such as research, feed, drugs, transportation, accessary equipment department, etc.
A simplified value chain is presented in the figure below:
