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ICELAND exported fish and seafood products to the world totalling 647 million euros - or £569 million sterling - during the first six months of this year, new figures have shown.
The figure is 3.5 per cent higher than in the same period last year and is probably down to higher fish prices on international markets.There is little doubt that the fishing industry continues to play a key role in the Icelandic economy.
Seafood now accounts 37 per cent of the country's total exports which amounted to 1.729-billion euros - or £1.5 billion sterling. But the biggest foreign revenue earner is still high value aluminium and ferro silicon. Iceland also earns revenue for the export of ships, fishing vessels and agricultural products.
In other statistics the value of fish catches by Icelandic vessels increased by 13.7 per cent last year from 2009. The value of the catch amounted to 131-billion kroners (£698 million sterling or 621-million euros) in 2010, compared to 115-billion kroners (£613-million or 537-million euros the a year before.
This increase can largely be attributed to the country's most valuable fish stock, cod, since the value of this catch increased by a fifth and amounted to a total value of 44.6 billion kroners (£245-million or 200-million euros) last year. Cod catches were up by 10,000 tons to 160,000 tons, thanks to higher quotas.
Moreover, the value of pelagic catches other than herring, capelin and blue whiting almost doubled last year from the year before and this was largely due to the increased fishing of mackerel. About 40 per cent of the catch went directly from being fished into domestic processing last year.
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