Investing in Blue Foods: Innovation and Partnerships for Impact

The report argues that doubling blue food production in Africa to 26.2 million tonnes by 2050 could add $17 billion to GDP and reduce the continent's protein gap by 25%. It identifies critical bottlenecks, including high feed costs, significant post-harvest waste, and illegal fishing, noting that simply reaching global average performance in these areas could boost supply by 40%. The document advocates for a holistic approach combining technology, business model, and product innovation—such as insect-based feeds and AI monitoring—supported by a robust enabling environment of policy, finance, and coordination via platforms like the World Economic Forum's Food Innovation Hubs.

• Doubling annual blue food production in Africa to approximately 26 million tonnes by 2050 could reduce the continent's protein supply gap with the rest of the world by around 25%, create roughly 3.3 million additional jobs, and add an estimated $17 billion to GDP.
• Africa's blue food sector faces significant inefficiencies compared to global averages; achieving global performance levels across input costs, waste, disease, and illegal fishing could increase production by 5 million tonnes, a 40% increase.
• High input costs are a primary barrier in Africa, where feed accounts for 70-80% of total aquaculture costs, compared to a global average of about 60%.
• Post-harvest losses are severe in Africa, with one-third of total blue food output lost before reaching consumers due to inadequate cold chain, transport, and processing infrastructure.
• Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is more prevalent in Africa than the global average, with approximately 36% of tuna and shrimp fishing from 2016 to 2021 potentially being illegal, compared to a 20% global average.
• Unmanaged growth in the sector poses ecological and social risks, including biodiversity loss from overfishing, the potential for non-native species to cause ecological imbalance (as seen with Nile perch in Lake Victoria), and the displacement of small-scale fishers.
• Innovation is categorized into three critical roles: business and operating-model innovation (e.g., shared infrastructure), technology innovation (e.g., AI-powered monitoring), and product innovation (e.g., insect-based proteins).
• Specific innovative solutions are already being piloted, such as Agrimercarb in Ghana using black soldier fly larvae for feed, ColdHubs in Nigeria providing solar-powered cold storage, and Dominion Solutions in South Africa using AI for fish monitoring.
• Successful large-scale transformation requires a coordinated multi-stakeholder model involving governments (policy and infrastructure), the private sector (investment and efficiency), development partners (de-risking and capacity), and local cooperatives (inclusion and implementation).

APA

World Economic Forum (2026). Investing in Blue Foods: Innovation and Partnerships for Impact. https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Investing_in_Blue_Foods_2026.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. Investing in Blue Foods: Innovation and Partnerships for Impact. 2026. https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Investing_in_Blue_Foods_2026.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=Investing in Blue Foods: Innovation and Partnerships for Impact |date=January 2026 |url=https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Investing_in_Blue_Foods_2026.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2026investing, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{Investing in Blue Foods: Innovation and Partnerships for Impact}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2026}, month = jan, url = {https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Investing_in_Blue_Foods_2026.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }