The Icelandic fishing fleet landed more than ISK 125.1 billion (USD 1 billion, EUR 893.5 million) worth of seafood in the 12 months through August 2018, up 12 percent year-on-year. The latest figures issued by Statistics Iceland find that the rise was due to revenue increases in the demersal, flatfish, and shellfish categories, which had offset a modest decline in the pelagic value.
Iceland’s demersal catch value climbed 17 percent year-on-year to almost ISK 88.2 billion (USD 713.9 million, EUR 629.9 million), with the cod catch accounting for almost ISK 56.8 billion (USD 459.7 million, EUR 405.6 million) of the total, up 16.8 percent compared with the previous 12 months.
There were also double-digit increases in the catch values of haddock, saithe and redfish – achieving ISK 9.3 billion (USD 75.3 million, EUR 66.4 million), ISK 7.1 billion (USD 57.5 million, EUR 50.7 million) and ISK 10.3 billion (USD 83.3 million, EUR 73.6 million) respectively.
At the same time, Iceland’s flatfish catch value jumped 28.5 percent to almost ISK 9.8 billion (USD 79.3 million, EUR 70 million), while the shellfish revenues climbed by 9.8 percent to ISK 2.6 billion (USD 21 million, EUR 18.6 million).
Meanwhile, the country’s pelagic catch value fell by 3.6 percent to ISK 24.5 billion (USD 198.3 million, EUR 175 million), with earnings for herring, capelin and mackerel decreasing by 30.7 percent, 12.2 percent and 8.7 percent respectively. Blue whiting achieved revenues of almost ISK 6.3 billion (USD 51 million, EUR 45 million), up 68.6 percent year-on-year.
During the 12-month period, ISK 69.9 billion (USD 565.6 million, EUR 499.2 million) worth of Iceland’s total catch went directly for domestic processing (up 18.4 percent), while ISK 18.5 billion (USD 149.7 million, EUR 132.1 million) worth was sold at auction for domestic processing (+14.4 percent).
Landings valued at ISK 5 billion (USD 40.5 million, EUR 35.7 million) were exported in containers (+20.3 percent), and the frozen-at-sea catch was up 1.1 percent year-on-year to ISK 31.5 billion (USD 254.9 million, EUR 225 million).
