Out of fifty-five fish imported into Central Africa, only one comes from another country in the region. The other 54 are imported from countries in West Africa, South Africa or Europe. Thus, of the approximately 300,000 t imported each year by the 8 countries of Central Africa, only 6,000 t come from a neighbouring country. However, maritime and continental production is substantial since some 500,000 t of fish are taken out of the water annually.

The fish trade in Central Africa represents an annual volume of around 306,000 t, of which 300,000 t are imports and 6,000 t are exports. While the volume of imports has tended to increase over time, the volume of exports has stagnated below 10,000 t for more than two decades.

The peak of production seems to have been reached in the early 2000s with nearly 580,000 t. Since then it has stagnated or even declined. The main reason is the increase in population: the growth rate is in fact higher than that of production.

In order to ensure a more or less stable supply (around 800,000 t in 2011) from one year to another, the use of imports is becoming inevitable and will be more and more so in the years to come because production, apart from significant progress in aquaculture, seems to have reached a plateau between 500 and 600,000 t while the population will continue to grow to reach 260 million inhabitants in 2050 (scenario with average fertility; UN, 2013).

Per capita consumption has increased by 10 kg/h. /year at 8 kg/h. /year over the last decade. Assuming a stabilization of per capita consumption at this last value and that of production at 600,000 t, the uncovered need will be of the order of 1.5 million t, a volume that will have to be imported.