774 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



FOREIGN FISHERY TRADE 



The volume of foreign trade in fishery products of the United States 

 in 1029 amounted to $90,395,769, of which $66,565,599 represents the 

 vahie of those imported for consumption, and $23,830,170 the value 

 of exports of domestic fishery products. Compared with the previous 

 year, this is an increase of 13 per cent in total trade, an increase of 

 13 per cent in the value of the imports, and an increase of 13 per cent 

 in the value of exports. 



Imports consisted of 357,109,092 pounds of edible products (includ- 

 ing fresh, frozen, and cured canned fish and shellfish), valued at 

 $38,752,571, and nonedible products (comprised mainly of marine- 

 animal oils, pearls, and imitation pearls), valued at $27,813,028. 

 Compared with 1928 this is a decrease of 1 per cent in the quantity, 

 and an increase of 4 per cent in the value of edible products imported, 

 and an increase of 30 per cent in the value of nonedible products 

 imported. Increases in the value of edible products imported were 

 due chiefly to larger imports of fresh and frozen fish packed in ice, 

 and various species of shellfish packed in ice, or canned. The increase 

 in the value of nonedible products imported was due almost entirely 

 to the greater value of imitation pearls and pearls that had not been 

 strung or set, although considerable of this is due to the greater im- 

 ports of marine-animal oils. 



Fishery exports consisted of edible products amounting to 213,308,- 

 744 pounds valued at $23,500,614, and nonedible products valued at 

 $329,556. Compared with the previous year this is an increase of 25 

 per cent in the quantity, and 13 per cent in the value of edible prod- 

 ucts imported, and a decrease of 15 per cent in the value of nonedible 

 products imported. The increase in edible exports is attributed 

 chiefly to the larger exports of canned fish, especially sardines, while 

 the exports of other groups of edible products showed little change 

 from the preceding year. Exports of nonedible products also show 

 but little change from those for 1928. 



Considering only the amount of fishery products on which we usually 

 have an unfavorable trade balance, the imports of fresh and frozen 

 fish in 1929 were about 20 times the exports in 1928, which is a slightly 

 lower ratio than in the year previous. In 1929 the imports of cured fish 

 were a little over eight times the exports, which is about the same 

 ratio as a year ago. Imports of fresh, and canned shellfish were about 

 two times as great as the exports in 1928, which is about the same 

 ratio as in the preceding three years. Imports of all edible fishery 

 products were about two times the exports, which also is about the 

 same ratio as in the previous year. Imports of marine-animal oils 

 n 1929 were about 124 times the amount of exports in 1928, which is a 

 somewhat lower ratio than the preceding two years, indicating that 

 perhaps our marine-animal oil industries are producing a greater 

 quantity of these oils to take care of the domestic trade. 



Contrasting those products with those on which we usually have a 

 favorable trade balance, the volume of the exports of canned fish, 

 which is the most important export group, was nearly five times the 

 imports, which is a somewhat larger ratio than in 1928. Exports of 

 miscellaneous edible fishery products were about three times the quan- 

 tity of the imports in 1929, which is a somewhat lower ratio than 

 prevailed in_1928. 



