The total first-sales value of wild catches landed by Iceland’s fishing fleet increased by 14.2 percent year-on-year for the 12 months through October 2019, exceeding ISK 144.1 billion (USD 1.2 billion, EUR 1.1 billion), preliminary figures released by the country’s Direcrorate of Fisheries revealed.
The new data confirms the rise was led by a 23.5 percent upturn in the demersal sector’s earnings, which amounted to ISK 110.6 billion (USD 896.1 million, EUR 806.1 million). Within this category, the total first-sales value of cod were up 20 percent to ISK 68.4 billion (USD 554.2 million, EUR 498.5 million).
There were also double-digit catch values increases for haddock (53 percent), saithe (34.7 percent), and redfish (11.6 percent), amounting to ISK 14.7 billion (USD 119.1 million, EUR 107.1 million), ISK 10.4 billion (USD 84.3 million, EUR 75.8 million), and ISK 11.7 billion (USD 94.8 million, EUR 85.3 million), respectively.
The pelagic catch value for the same period, meanwhile, fell 6.5 percent to less than ISK 22.3 billion (USD 180.7 million, EUR 162.5 million). This slump was the result of a zeroed-out capelin catch. However, within the category, mackerel revenues increased by 13.1 percent to almost ISK 8.5 billion (USD 68.9 million, EUR 62 million), herring value surged 56.9 percent to ISK 6.6 billion (USD 53.5 million, EUR 48.1 million), and blue whiting earnings climbed 15.9 percent to ISK 7.2 billion (USD 58.3 million, EUR 52.5 million).
Shellfish revenues reached almost ISK 1.9 billion (USD 15.4 million, EUR 13.8 million), down 28.9 percent year-on-year, while the total flatfish catch value fell 7.7 percent to ISK 9.3 billion (USD 75.4 million, EUR 67.8 million).
Over the course of the 12-month period, some ISK 77.3 billion (USD 626.3 million, EUR 563.4 million) worth of Iceland’s catch went directly for domestic processing (up 10.4 percent), and products valued at almost ISK 22.6 billion (USD 183.1 million, EUR 164.7 million) were sold at auction for domestic processing (up 19.1 percent).
Landings valued close to ISK 6.3 billion (USD 51 million, EUR 45.9 million) were exported in containers (up 13.2 percent), and the frozen-at-sea catch increased by 17.5 percent year-on-year to ISK 36.9 billion (USD 299 million, EUR 268.9 million).
Photo courtesy of Alexey Stiop/Shutterstock
