What Are the Impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Global Aquaculture Industry? The First Systematic Literature Review

Abstract Global food demand is rising, and the recent threat of the COVID-19 pandemic has been predicted to adversely impact the prospects of aquaculture as one of the world's fastest-growing food sectors. There are presently no studies that comprehensively analyze the current research on the influence of COVID-19 on the global aquaculture business. This systematic review aimed to evaluate the current literature on the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the aquaculture industry. The present study integrated multiple research designs, and the Reporting Standards for Systematic Evidence Syntheses (ROSES) which was designed specifically for systematic literature review (SLR) and maps for the ecology and environment field. A total of 112 articles were located with the provided keywords using the ROSES methods. Only a total of 12 articles were considered for this SLR after title and abstract screening. Study’s quality was characterized as policy responses (n = 6), factors of production (n = 8), aquaculture animals’ welfare (n = 8), logistics (n = 9), demand and supply (n = 9), and prices (n = 9). This study has few limitations, including: (i) COVID-19 seems to be an ongoing global pandemic; thus, only a few years articles were available, (ii) only two most important databases were used, Scopus and Web of Sciences, without using grey literature, and (iii) this study only used articles that were published in the English. In conclusion, additional research is required to focus on the macro data (poverty and unemployment) and COVID-19 impacts on the environmental ecosystem without relying on survey perception. This research should also contain statistics of environmental impacts and hard data facts. Future policy proposals should be focused on the available technologies and should be based on the mitigation strategies for labour and lockdown issues of COVID-19. A systematic literature review thereby has a significant added value because this method is applicable to evaluate the available knowledge, current trends, and gaps regarding the impact of COVID-19 on the global aquaculture industry.