The fishing fleet in Iceland generated first-sales of fisheries products worth more than ISK 131.5 billion (USD 1.1 billion, EUR 927.3 million) in the 12 months through March 2019, representing an increase of 10.4 percent year-on-year, confirms new figures released by Statistics Iceland.
This rise is attributed to higher earnings in the demersal, flatfish, and shellfish categories, which were together able to more than offset a double-digit slump in the pelagic catch value.
Iceland’s demersal catch value climbed 15.4 percent year-on-year to almost ISK 98 billion (USD 786.4 million, EUR 691.1 million), with the cod catch up 13.9 percent to almost ISK 61.7 billion (USD 495.1 million, EUR 435.2 million). There were also increases in the catch values of haddock (up 45.3 percent), saithe (up 13.6 percent) and redfish (up 4.7 percent), which achieved first-sales of ISK 12.7 billion (USD 101.9 million, EUR 89.6 million), ISK 8.3 billion (USD 66.6 million, EUR 58.5 million) and ISK 10.5 billion (USD 84.3 million, EUR 74.1 million) respectively.
Iceland’s flatfish catch value increased by 26 percent to ISK 10.6 billion (USD 85.1 million, EUR 74.8 million), while the shellfish revenues climbed by 9.8 percent to ISK 2.6 billion (USD 20.9 million, EUR 18.3 million).
Meanwhile, the country’s pelagic catch value fell by 13.3 percent to less than ISK 20.4 billion (USD 163.8 million, EUR 143.9 million), with the mackerel earnings decreasing by 11.9 percent to ISK 7.5 billion (USD 60.2 million, EUR 52.9 million). Blue whiting achieved revenues of ISK 8.2 billion (USD 65.8 million, EUR 57.9 million), up 79.2 percent year-on-year, while the herring value climbed 3.4 percent to almost ISK 4.7 billion (USD 37.7 million, EUR 33.2 million).
During the 12-month period, ISK 70.6 billion (USD 566.9 million, EUR 498 million) worth of Iceland’s total catch went directly for domestic processing (up 7.8 percent), while ISK 21 billion (USD 168.6 million, EUR 148.1 million) worth was sold at auction for domestic processing , an increase of 26.3 percent.
Landings valued at almost ISK 6.1 billion (USD 49 million, EUR 43 million) were exported in containers, an increase of 31.2 percent, and the frozen-at-sea catch was up 4.4 percent year-on-year to ISK 33.4 billion (USD 268.2 million, EUR 235.6 million).
