Iceland’s fishing fleet landed seafood with a total value of ISK 146.4 billion (USD 1.2 billion, EUR 1.1 billion) in the 12 months through to February 2016, an increase of 2.3 percent year-on-year, according to new figures published by Statistics Iceland.
The improved value was largely thanks to a 15.3 percent increase in the value of the cod catch, which achieved a total value of ISK 62.7 billion (USD 511.6 million, EUR 450 million) during the period.
Overall, the country’s demersal catch grew by 10.4 percent in value to ISK 103.5 billion (USD 844.6 million, EUR 732.9 million), while its flatfish and shellfish catches improved by 46.9 percent and 8.3 percent to ISK 10.1 billion (USD 82.4 million, EUR 72.5 million) and ISK 4.1 billion (USD 33.5 million, EUR 29.4 million), respectively.
However, Iceland’s pelagic catch decreased in value by 25.6 percent to ISK 28.8 billion (USD 235 million, EUR 206.8 million), with the value of herring and capelin both falling to ISK 5.9 billion (USD 48.1 million, EUR 42.4 million), and mackerel down to ISK 10.4 billion (USD 84.9 million, EUR 74.7 million).
In terms of product utilization, ISK 77.3 billion (USD 630.8 million, EUR 554.7 million) worth of the total catch went to directly domestic processing, which represented an increase of 4.2 percent. At the same time, ISK 20.6 billion (USD 168.1 million, EUR 147.8 million) worth went to auction for domestic processing, which was 4.6 percent higher than in the previous year, and ISK 43.2 billion (USD 352.5 million, EUR 310 million) worth of products were frozen at sea, which was down 1.8 percent year-on-year.
