Aquaculture has been the world's fastest growing food production system for the past decade with an average compound growth rate of 11.6 per cent per year since 1984, compared with a growth of 3.5 per cent per year for terrestrial livestock meat production and 1.8 per cent per year for capture fisheries from 1984 to 1996; total global aquaculture production in 1996 (34.1 million metric tons (mmt) in 1996) was valued at 46.5 thousand million US dollars. Moreover, aquaculture's contribution toward total world fisheries landings (129.8 mmt in 1996) has more than doubled, increasing from 11.4 per cent to 26.3 per cent in the same period. Besides reviewing global aquaculture production from both a species, country and regional level, the paper discusses the major challenges related to aquafeed development for farmed finfish and crustacean species.