The Icelandic fishing fleet landed seafood with a total value just below ISK 118 billion (USD 1.1 billion, EUR 1 billion) in the 12 months from April 2016 to March 2017, a decrease of 17.5 percent year-on-year.
During this period, the value of the country’s demersal, flatfish, pelagic and shellfish catches decreased by 21.2 percent, 24.1 percent, 0.7 percent and 24.9 percent respectively, according to new figures published by Statistics Iceland.
The country’s demersal catch achieved a value of ISK 79.5 billion (USD 760.9 million, EUR 675.8 million), with only ocean redfish posting any increase in value – up 5.2 percent to ISK 597.4 million (USD 5.7 million, EUR 5.1 million). The values achieved by cod, haddock, saithe and redfish, meanwhile, all saw double-digit reductions – to ISK 50.3 billion (USD 481.7 million, EUR 428.2 million), ISK 8.1 billion (USD 77.6 million, EUR 69 million), ISK 6.9 billion (USD 66.1 million, EUR 58.8 million) and ISK 9 billion (USD 86.3 million, EUR 76.7 million) respectively.
At the same time, its pelagic earnings totaled ISK 27.5 billion (USD 264.1 million, EUR 234.8 million). In this category, there was growth in the value of herring, capelin and mackerel – up to ISK 6.2 billion (USD 59.5 million, EUR 52.9 million), ISK 6.3 billion (USD 60.3 million, EUR 53.6 million) and ISK 10.9 billion (USD 104.2 million, EUR 92.6 million) respectively. However, the value of the Icelandic blue whiting catch was down 34.7 percent to ISK 4.2 billion (USD 40.2 million, EUR 35.6 million).
The value of Iceland’s flatfish landings dropped to ISK 7.8 billion (USD 74.4 million, EUR 66.2 million), while its shellfish catch value amounted to ISK 3.1 billion (USD 29.5 million, EUR 26.3 million).
Around ISK 62.4 billion (USD 591.9 million, EUR 525.9 million) worth of Iceland’s total catch went directly for domestic processing (down 16.3 percent), while ISK 18.4 billion (USD 175.4 million, EUR 155.5 million) worth was sold at auction for domestic processing (down 8.4 percent) in the 12-month period.
Landings valued at ISK 4.4 billion (USD 41.8 million, EUR 37.2 million) were exported in containers (down 5.1 percent), and the frozen-at-sea catch fell by 26.4 percent year-on-year to ISK 31.8 billion (USD 302.2 million, EUR 268.5 million).
