Fishermen in Iceland landed almost ISK 11.4 billion (USD 108.5 million, EUR 92.8 million) worth of seafood in April, up 32.8 percent compared with the corresponding month in 2017. Increased earnings in both the demersal and pelagic categories were largely responsible for the rise, according to the latest figures issued by Statistics Iceland.
Iceland’s total demersal catch achieved a value of ISK 8.3 billion (USD 79 million, EUR 67.6 million), with cod’s value increasing by 36.6 percent compared with April 2017 to ISK 4.5 billion (USD 42.8 million, EUR 36.7 million). There were also increases in the catch values of haddock, saithe, and redfish at ISK 860.9 million (USD 8.2 million, EUR 7 million), ISK 846.9 million (USD 8.1 million, EUR 6.9 million), and ISK 1.2 billion (USD 11.4 million, EUR 9.8 million), respectively.
Meanwhile, the country’s pelagic value soared by 63.4 percent to almost ISK 2 billion (USD 19 million, EUR 16.3 million), led by a 64.6 percent rise in blue whiting catch.
At the same time, the flatfish and shellfish catch values climbed to ISK 772.8 million (USD 7.4 million, EUR 6.3 million) and ISK 348 million (USD 3.3 million, EUR 2.8 million), respectively.
The accumulated total catch value for the 12 months starting in May 2017 through April 2018 increased by 5 percent year-on-year to ISK 121.7 billion (USD 1.2 billion, EUR 990.9 million), with increases in the demersal and flatfish catch values of 10.8 percent and 14.7 percent, respectively. Conversely, earnings from the pelagic and shellfish sectors decreased by 11.9 percent and 15.8 percent, respectively.
During this period, ISK 67.5 billion (USD 642.3 million, EUR 549.4 million) worth of Iceland’s total catch went directly for domestic processing (up 11.2 percent), while ISK 17.2 billion (USD 163.6 million, EUR 140 million) worth was sold at auction for domestic processing (down 3.6 percent). Landings valued at ISK 4.7 billion (USD 44.7 million, EUR 38.3 million) were exported in containers (up 3.4 percent), and the frozen-at-sea catch fell by 0.6 percent year-on-year to less than ISK 32 billion (USD 304.4 million, EUR 260.6 million).
