Africa's rapidly expanding aquaculture sector presents an opportunity to establish welfare standards from the outset rather than retrofitting them to an established industry.
Africa's aquaculture expansion represents both an opportunity and a risk for fish welfare. The opportunity is to establish welfare-aware practices from the beginning of industry development, before poor welfare becomes entrenched as normal practice. The risk is that rapid growth without welfare infrastructure creates welfare problems at scale before they can be addressed. Regional welfare standards appropriate for small-scale African systems, alongside capacity building for producers, could establish a welfare foundation for a growing industry that will feed hundreds of millions of people.