Band 6+: The bar chart below shows US seafood imports between 2002 and 2022 and the forecast for 2032. The pie chart shows the geographical structures of these imports in 2002. Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words.

The bar chart displays the existing and predicted inflow of seafood products between the years 2002 to 2022 whilst the pie chart illustrates the proportion of where the seafood is coming from only in 2022; a year with the highest value of seafood shipping into the country.

Overall, there is an increase of seafood imports by around 10 billion dollars in the 30 year time period. Between 2002 and 2012, there was a gradual increase in US seafood imports followed by a steeper growth between 2012 and 2022 which around a 3 times increase from 2002. In contrast, the value of seafood imports decreased slightly from around 20 billion US dollars to an estimated 18 billion US dollars.

About three quarters of the US seafood imports came from the region of Asia with the major exporters being Thailand and China which already combine for 51% of the overall inflow of seafood products. The rest of the sources of seafood come from Canada, Ecuador and other countries which sum up to just a little over a quarter of the US’s overall imports.