Production of Brazilian native species such as tambaqui, pintado and pirarucu is expected to grow up to 5 percent in 2019.

After production fell by 4.7 percent in 2018 to 287,910 metric tons, aquaculture trade body Peixe BR forecasts a return to growth this year.

Drought problems, health issues and tough market conditions dogged producers in 2018.

But amid bottlenecks in the market and production growing at less than 2 percent in recent years, the decline in output came as little surprise to industry onlookers.