Less than ISK 9.8 billion (USD 96.8 million, EUR 79.2 million) worth of seafood was caught by the Icelandic fishing fleet in November 2017, a decrease of 3.5 percent compared with 12 months previously, with reduced earnings from its pelagic, flatfish and shellfish catches a higher value for its demersal fish, according to the latest figures issued by Statistics Iceland.
Iceland’s demersal catch value for the month increased by 7.4 percent year-on-year to ISK 8.2 billion (USD 81 million, EUR 66.3 million), with cod’s value falling by 3.4 percent compared with November 2016 to ISK 5.3 billion (USD 52.3 million, EUR 42.8 million). While there was a 10.5 percent rise in the haddock value to ISK 774.4 million (USD 7.6 million, EUR 6.3 million), the biggest revenue gains were made by redfish (up 31.1 percent) and saithe (up 111 percent) to ISK 1.1 billion (USD 10.9 million, EUR 8.9 million) and ISK 822.1 million (USD 8.1 million, EUR 6.6 million) respectively.
The country’s pelagic catch value decreased by 45 percent to just over ISK 1 billion (USD 9.9 million, EUR 8.1 million), driven by a 51.6 percent drop in the herring value at ISK 858.3 million (USD 8.5 million, EUR 6.9 million).
At the same time, the country’s flatfish value slumped by 13.1 percent to ISK 453.7 million (USD 4.5 million, EUR 3.7 million) and its shellfish value fell by 7.2 percent to ISK 84 million (USD 829,514, EUR 679,126).
The accumulated total catch value for the year December 2016 through November 2017 declined by 19.1 percent to ISK 109.1 billion (USD 1.1 billion, EUR 882.1 million), with reductions in the demersal, pelagic, flatfish and shellfish catch values of 20.7 percent, 11.7 percent, 20.6 percent and 31.2 percent respectively.
In volume terms, Iceland’s fishermen caught a total 77,902 metric tons (MT) of seafood in November 2017, an increase of 1 percent year-on-year.
November’s total demersal landings increased by 12 percent year-on-year to 44,188 MT, with cod accounting for 26,719 MT (unchanged from November 2016), haddock up 9 percent to 3,474 MT, while saithe and redfish increased by 107 percent and 27 percent respectively to 5,697 MT and 6,426 MT.
Shellfish was the only other category to record any growth in month, with the catch up 35 percent to 735 MT.
Pelagic landings decreased by 12 percent year-on-year to 31,629 MT, with herring down 25 percent to 23,888 MT, while Iceland’s flatfish catch registered a 12 percent decrease to 1,350 MT.
During the 12-month period, ISK 59.2 billion (USD 584.6 million, EUR 478.6 million) worth of Iceland’s total catch went directly for domestic processing (down 16.1 percent), while fish worth ISK 16.1 billion (USD 159 million, EUR 130.2 million) were sold at auction for domestic processing (down 18.9 percent). Landings valued at less than ISK 4.1 billion (USD 40.5 million, EUR 33.1 million) were exported in containers (down 21.5 percent), and the frozen-at-sea catch fell by 23 percent year-on-year to ISK 29.4 billion (USD 290.3 million, EUR 237.6 million).
