Iceland’s fishing fleet landed seafood with a total value of ISK 151 billion (USD 1.2 billion, EUR 1.1 billion) in 2015, an increase of 11 compared to the previous year, according to new figures published by Statistics Iceland.
The improved value was largely thanks to a 14.9 percent increase in the value of the cod catch, which achieved a total close to ISK 61 billion (USD 493.5 million, EUR 433.8 million) last year. The fleet’s capelin catch also made a significant contribution to the higher total, growing 218.5 percent to ISK 12.7 billion (USD 102.8 million, EUR 90.3 million).
Overall, the country’s demersal catch grew by 11.8 percent in value to ISK 102.8 billion (USD 831.7 million, EUR 731.1 million), while its pelagic catch increased by 3.4 percent to ISK 34.6 billion (USD 280 million, EUR 246.1 million).
At the same time, the value its flatfish and shellfish catches improved by 39.1 percent and 7.4 percent to ISK 9.8 billion (USD 79.3 million, EUR 69.7 million) and ISK 4 billion (USD 32.4 million, EUR 28.4 million), respectively.
In terms of product utilization, ISK 81.6 billion (USD 660.2 million, EUR 580.3 million) worth of the total catch went to directly domestic processing last year, which represented an increase of 21 percent. At the same time, ISK 20.4 billion (USD 165 million, EUR 145.1 million) worth went to auction for domestic processing, which was 3.3 percent higher than in the previous year.
Furthermore, ISK 43.9 billion (USD 355.2 million, EUR 312.1 million) worth of products were frozen at sea, which was down slightly compared with 2014.
