The increase in March marked the third consecutive month of growth of the Peruvian fishing GDP.
Photo: Produce.
Peru's Ministry of Production (Produce) announced that, in March 2025, the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of extractive fishing registered a growth of 29.1%. According to the head of Produce, Sergio González, the result was mainly due to increased fishing of both species for indirect human consumption and those destined for direct human consumption.
"Last March, landings totaled 210 thousand tons, representing an expansion of 141.4% compared to March 2024. This has meant a contribution of PEN 302 million (EUR 73.7 million / USD 82.8 million) from the fishing sector and a contribution of 0.6% to the national GDP," the Peruvian Minister of Production stated.
As mentioned above, this 0.6% contribution to the national GDP came both from the purely extractive segment and from the processing industry, which has great weight in the country, especially in the production of fishmeal and fish oil derived from anchovy.
In terms of landings, anchovy for indirect human consumption reached a total of 56.5 thousand tons. Compared to the figure recorded in March 2024, which was 0.8 thousand tons, this year's figure represents a significant increase of 6,966.3%.
Produce clarified that this corresponds entirely to the first anchovy fishing season of 2025 in the southern zone of the country, the best in the last decade, where, at the end of the first quarter of the year, a landing of 176,226.11 tons had been recorded. The ports of Matarani, Pacocha, Ilo, and Mollendo were the most outstanding in their contributions to total fishing for indirect human consumption.
Regarding the contribution of landings for direct human consumption, this increased by 78.1%, reaching 153.5 thousand tons. In this case, the increase was mainly due to the greater extraction of resources destined for the frozen industry (+205.0%), followed by canning (+25.3%), fresh product (+10.6%), and, finally, cured (+5.6%).
According to Produce, the increase in landings of jumbo flying squid (+170.4%), mackerel (+267.9%), and, above all, jack mackerel (+6,036.6%) contributed significantly to the positive performance of the direct human consumption fishing.
This increase of 29.1% in March is also important because it marked the third consecutive month of growth of the Peruvian fishing GDP, outlining 2025 as a year of recovery for the sector, as Produce has been pointing out since it started.
As reported by WeAreAquaculture, in January, the Peruvian fishing GDP grew 23.5%. As it was in March, the growth was mainly due to the increase in anchovy landings for indirect human consumption, which increased by 313.2% compared to January 2024. In monetary terms, this represented an increase of PEN 39.1 million (EUR 10.1 million / USD 10.6 million) over the same month of the previous year.
In February, for its part, the extractive fishing GDP grew by 24.6%, equivalent to an increase of PEN 24.1 million (EUR 5.8 million / USD 6.6 million). Landings totaled 204.9 thousand tons, representing an expansion of 127.5% concerning February 2024 (90.1 thousand MT). As in March, both indirect human consumption and direct human consumption fishing contributed to this increase.
