Malaysia has the highest supply of fish and seafood per person in Southeast Asia at 51.03 kilograms a year, well ahead of Indonesia, Myanmar and Vietnam, which each sit at around 40 kilograms.
The figures come from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Food Balance Sheets, which track food supply across countries. They are processed and published by Our World in Data, and the series used here covers 2010 to 2023.
The dataset was last updated on February 25, 2026. The latest figures refer to 2023.
Malaysia Leads, but the Gap Is Closing
Malaysia recorded 51.03 kilograms of fish and seafood per person in 2023, the highest of the nine Southeast Asian countries in the data.
Indonesia came second at 40.42 kilograms, just ahead of Myanmar at 40.35. Vietnam and Cambodia followed, and the four are separated by about one kilogram, so their order could easily change. Brunei Darussalam and Singapore do not appear in the dataset and are excluded.
Fish and seafood supply per person (kilograms per year)
| Rank | Country | 2010 | 2023 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Malaysia | 60.01 | 51.03 | -15% |
| 2 | Indonesia | 27.44 | 40.42 | +47.3% |
| 3 | Myanmar | 45.65 | 40.35 | -11.6% |
| 4 | Vietnam | 33.83 | 40.06 | +18.4% |
| 5 | Cambodia | 35.79 | 39.42 | +10.1% |
| 6 | Thailand | 24.19 | 28.62 | +18.3% |
| 7 | Laos | 17.94 | 28.52 | +59% |
| 8 | Philippines | 32.71 | 26.34 | -19.5% |
| 9 | Timor-Leste | 5.18 | 6.97 | +34.6% |
Malaysia has ranked first in every year from 2010 to 2023, but the gap is narrowing. Its supply has fallen by almost 9 kilograms since 2010, while Indonesia gained about 13 kilograms and Laos nearly 11. Myanmar and the Philippines also declined.
Production figures point to part of the explanation. Malaysia’s fish and seafood production dropped 11%, from 1.81 million tonnes in 2010 to 1.61 million tonnes in 2020, while its population grew 18%. Over the same decade, production rose 57% in Indonesia and 66% in Vietnam, both far ahead of population growth of about 12%.
The composition of supply also differs. In Malaysia, fish that live in open water near the surface, such as mackerel, sardines and tuna (pelagic fish, 17.07 kg), and fish that live near the sea floor, such as snapper and grouper (demersal fish, 9.76 kg), account for just over half of supply.
The rest is made up of smaller shares of shellfish and other seafood, including prawns and crabs (crustaceans, 4.77 kg), squid and cuttlefish (cephalopods, 2.44 kg) and other molluscs such as clams and cockles (2.27 kg). In Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, freshwater fish dominates: 33.45 of 40.35 kilograms in Myanmar, 29.46 of 39.42 in Cambodia and 26.92 of 28.52 in Laos.
Malaysia also leads on protein from fish and seafood in 2023, but the picture changes when fish is set against other animal protein. Fish made up only 27% of Malaysia’s animal protein supply, down from 34% in 2010, because Malaysians get more of their animal protein from other sources. In Cambodia and Myanmar, fish provides more than half.
Protein from fish and seafood per person
| Country | Grams per day, 2010 | Grams per day, 2023 | Share of animal protein, 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Malaysia | 17.57 | 14.84 | 27% |
| Cambodia | 11.90 | 13.31 | 61% |
| Indonesia | 9.35 | 12.96 | 43% |
| Myanmar | 14.72 | 11.81 | 51% |
| Vietnam | 9.12 | 11.12 | 26% |
| Thailand | 7.60 | 9.62 | 35% |
| Laos | 5.54 | 8.95 | 35% |
| Philippines | 10.14 | 8.08 | 28% |
| Timor-Leste | 1.49 | 2.12 | 9% |
What the Data Measures
These figures show food supply per person, not what people actually eat.
The indicator counts the quantity available for consumption at the end of the supply chain and does not subtract consumer waste, so actual intake is likely lower. It covers fish, crustaceans, cephalopods and molluscs, and FAO classifies all 2023 values as estimates.
Across the nine countries in the data, the population-weighted average supply in 2023 was 37.08 kilograms per person. FAO’s separate State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture report puts global per capita consumption of aquatic animal foods at 20.7 kg in 2022, with Asia at 24.7 kg.
That series uses a different method and year, so it cannot be compared directly with the 2023 figures above. Even allowing for the difference in method, Malaysia’s 51.03 kilograms is well over twice the global figure of 20.7.
Malaysia’s Own Figures
Malaysia’s own figures, which cover a shorter period, show ups and downs rather than the decline since 2010 seen in the FAO series.
The Department of Fisheries reported total production of 1.91 million tonnes in 2024, up 7.1% from 1.79 million tonnes in 2023. Capture fisheries landed 1.39 million tonnes and aquaculture produced about 511,000 tonnes.
An earlier DOF statement had put the 2024 total at 1.94 million tonnes. The DOF production figures are not directly comparable with the FAO-based figures above, which cover 2010 to 2020 and may differ in scope.
Per-person consumption of “edible fish”, a category covering finfish, molluscs and crustaceans, was 46.6 kg in 2022 and 44.7 kg in 2023, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security’s Agrofood Statistics Malaysia 2025. It then rose to 48.1 kg in 2024 before easing to 46.6 kg in 2025. Finfish alone stood at 38.4 kg in 2024.
These national figures are not directly comparable with FAO’s 2023 supply estimate, which is calculated from food balance sheets using a different method. Either way, the data shows that fish remains a large part of Malaysia’s food system, even though per-person consumption fluctuates from year to year.
