Guyana’s aquaculture industry recorded a sharp increase in production during the first half of 2026, growing by 50.3 per cent compared with the corresponding period last year, according to the Ministry of Finance’s Mid-Year Report.
The increase helped to lift the overall fishing subsector, which expanded by an estimated 4.1 per cent during the first six months of the year, despite a decline in marine fish production.
“Over the review period, aquaculture production grew by 50.3 percent when compared with the first half of 2025, with notable increases across multiple products,” the report stated.
While the report did not provide a breakdown of the individual aquaculture products responsible for the increase, it noted that stronger aquaculture and marine shrimp production outweighed the decline recorded in marine fish.
Marine shrimp production grew by 3.4 per cent to 5,756 tonnes during the first half of 2026, supported by higher production of artisanal seabob and whitebelly shrimp.
Marine fish production falls
The performance was different for the country’s marine fish industry.
Production of marine fish, which the report identifies as artisanal and industrial finfish and red snapper, declined by 4.1 per cent compared with the first half of 2025.
Marine fish production amounted to 13,313 tonnes during the six-month period.
Despite that contraction, gains from aquaculture and shrimp were enough to keep the wider fishing subsector in positive territory.
“The fishing subsector is estimated to have grown by 4.1 percent in the first half of the year, with higher marine shrimp production and aquaculture output, outweighing lower output of marine fish,” the report stated.
The Ministry has now projected that the fishing subsector will record 1.6 per cent growth for the full year.
The positive performance in fishing came even as Guyana’s wider agriculture, forestry and fishing sector contracted marginally by 0.5 per cent during the first half of 2026.
That contraction was largely blamed on weaker other-crops production following sustained above-normal rainfall. Gains in fishing, along with sugar, rice, livestock and forestry, were not enough to offset the decline in other crops.
