Samenvatting

In Pacific Island food systems, provincial markets provide access points to aquatic foods for growing urban populations. Yet, their contribution to human nutrition is largely undocumented. We help fill this gap using monitoring data from the Auki central market in Solomon Islands collected over the course of a year. Market dynamics of fish supply and customer distribution were analyzedand overlaid with finfish species’ nutrient profiles. Over 121 t of fish from 376 different marine species, and worth an estimated SI$2.5 million (US$300 000) were recorded on 215 sampling days (70% of open market days). The supply of fish to the market varied considerably between monsoon and trade wind seasons, but throughout the year was dominated by skipjack tuna (65% of total weight), while customer distribution was concentrated in communities adjacent to the market. From a nutritional perspective, the average daily fish supply at the market during monsoon season had potential to provide the entire Auki ward population (approx. 7000 people) with their full recommended nutrient intake (RNI) of selenium, half their recommended protein, and a third of their omega-3s. However, contributions towards RNIs of calcium, iron, and vitamin A were much lower. Results highlight that fresh fish remain an important and widely available source of nutrients for people in urban and peri-urban communities in an island food systems context. They also emphasize that foods from diverse food groups are essential to comprehensively meet the nutritional requirements of people throughout the year.