Iceland’s fishing fleet landed seafood with a total value of ISK 143.6 billion (USD 1.2 billion, EUR 1.1 billion) in the 12 months through to April 2016, a decrease of 3.7 percent year-on-year, according to new figures published by Statistics Iceland.
The lower value was largely the result of a 1.7 percent decrease in the value of the demersal catch, which achieved a total value of ISK 96.6 billion (USD 817.3 million, EUR 728.1 million) during the period, with saithe and redfish landings down in value by 37.9 percent and 17.4 percent, respectively. There were, however, double-digit increases in both the cod and haddock catches, which amounted to ISK 4.4 billion (USD 37.2 million, EUR 33.1 million) and ISK 876.8 million (USD 7.4 million, EUR 6.6 million), respectively.
Meanwhile, Iceland’s flatfish and pelagic catches improved by 53.2 percent and 70.2 percent to ISK 6.8 billion (USD 57.5 million, EUR 51.3 million) and ISK 42 billion (USD 355.5 million, EUR 316.6 million), respectively.
Within Iceland’s pelagic catch, the value of its blue whiting increased by 66.8 percent to ISK 4.5 billion (USD 38.1 million, EUR 33.9 million), and its mackerel catch grew 5,584 percent to ISK 15.3 billion (USD 129.4 million, EUR 115.3 million).
In terms of product utilization, ISK 75.2 billion (USD 636.2 million, EUR 566.8 million) worth of the total catch went to directly domestic processing, which represented a decrease of 4.9 percent. At the same time, ISK 20.1 billion (USD 170.1 million, EUR 151.5 million) worth went to auction for domestic processing, which was 2.1 percent higher than in the previous year, and ISK 42.9 billion (USD 362.9 million, EUR 323.3 million) worth of products were frozen-at-sea, which was down 15.2 percent year-on-year.
