Competitive trends of Atlantic bluefin tuna farming among major Mediterranean producers, with special emphasis on human capacity by population growth

This study aims to investigate the economic dynamics among five major tuna producing countries in the Mediterranean: Malta, Spain, Türkiye, Croatia and Tunisia which provide significant amounts of tuna for the growing demand in the market network. Major drivers of the tuna farming were identified based on annual production yields provided by FAO statistics. The growth trends and economic development of the tuna production industries in the three key producers of tuna have been evaluated and superimposed with the increasing trends in population densities between 2006 and 2023. Tuna harvests from farms in Malta increased around 3-fold from 6,069 to 18,623.7 tons between in 2006-2023, while in Spain approximately 4-fold increase was noted in the last 18 years, from 2,572 to 10,652.8 tons. Among the five major producers in the Mediterranean, Türkiye increased its harvest by 9.4-fold between the same years, reaching 3,674 tons in 2023 from the relatively low level of 390 tons in 2006. Tunisian production increased by 3.2-fold from 450 to 1,439 tons between 2006-2023, whereas Croatian tuna farming declined by 0.49-fold from 6,700 to 3,242 tons over the past 18 years. In terms of economic gain, tuna producers of Malta achieved around 9% higher economic gain than Spain, and around 72, 83, and 94% higher economic efficiency than Croatia, Türkiye, and Tunisia, respectively. Considering the importance of skilled labor in production, the relationship between harvest volumes and population growth by country was examined through correlation. Strong correlation between production and population growth was observed in both Malta and Türkiye over the 18-year period (R=0.91, Malta; R=0.90, Turkey), whereas no such strong correlation was found in Spain (R=0.68), followed by Tunisia (R=0.49) and Croatia (R=0.14) for the same years of investigation. The results of this study highlight the importance of manpower in the production and operational processes of the aquaculture industry, in addition to other factors. Furthermore, considering the need for more comprehensive studies on human capacity in aquaculture, findings of the present study shed light and encourage future research.