The total value of seafood caught by the Icelandic fishing fleet in September 2017 amounted to less than ISK 11.1 billion (USD 106.7 million, EUR 88.5 million), down 12.5 percent compared with a year previously, with reduced earnings in all product categories, according to the latest figures issued by Statistics Iceland.
Iceland’s demersal catch value for the month decreased by 13.1 percent to ISK 6.1 billion (USD 58.6 million, EUR 48.7 million), with cod’s value falling by 10.5 percent compared with September 2016 to ISK 4 billion (USD 38.5 million, EUR 31.9 million), redfish was down 9.2 percent to ISK 777.3 million (USD 7.5 million, EUR 6.2 million), haddock was down 6.7 percent to ISK 723.4 million (USD 7 million, EUR 5.8 million) and saithe fell 33.4 percent to ISK 339 million (USD 3.3 million, EUR 2.7 million).
The country’s pelagic catch value, meanwhile, decreased by 12.6 percent to ISK 4.2 billion (USD 40.4 million, EUR 33.5 million), with a 46.5 percent reduction in the herring value at ISK 584.6 million (USD 5.6 million, EUR 4.7 million) and mackerel down 2.3 percent to less than ISK 3.6 billion (USD 34.6 million, EUR 28.7 million).
At the same time, the country’s flatfish value dropped 5 percent to ISK 595.1 million (USD 5.7 million, EUR 4.7 million) and its shellfish fell by 12.4 percent to ISK 207.3 million (USD 2 million, EUR 1.7 million).
The accumulated total catch value for the year October 2016 through September 2017 declined by 20.8 percent year-on-year to ISK 109.3 billion (USD 1.1 billion, EUR 871.9 million), with reductions in the demersal, pelagic, flatfish and shellfish catch values of 23.6 percent, 7.2 percent, 23.8 percent and 36.6 percent respectively.
During the 12-month period, ISK 59 billion (USD 566.9 million, EUR 470.6 million) worth of Iceland’s total catch went directly for domestic processing (down 17.5 percent), while ISK 15.9 billion (USD 152.8 million, EUR 126.8 million) worth was sold at auction for domestic processing (down 21 percent). Landings valued at ISK 4 billion (USD 38.4 million, EUR 31.9 million) were exported in containers (down 24.7 percent), and the frozen-at-sea catch fell by more than 24 percent year-on-year to less than ISK 30 billion (USD 288.3 million, EUR 239.3 million).
