An aquaculture farm outside the town of Isafjordur, Iceland, in the Icelandic Westfjords.
Photo: Adobe Stock.
New month, a new record for Iceland's aquaculture export value which in October 2024 amounted to approximately ISK 6.6 billion (EUR 45.3 million / USD 47.7 million). In percentage terms, this represents an increase of 26% compared to the same month last year.
As WeAreAquaculture reported earlier this month when the Icelandic dashboard of the fishing industry and aquaculture, Radarinn, provided information on the value of aquaculture exports for September, judging by those also obtained in July and August, breaking records is becoming the norm in Iceland.
Thus, month on month, it has come to that, from January to October, the value of exports of aquaculture products has reached almost ISK 42 billion (EUR 288.6 million / USD 304 million), which, compared to the same period in 2023, reflects an increase of approximately 23%. This value is the highest recorded for the first ten months of the year.
Statistics Iceland's preliminary statistics for October, on which Radarinn relies, presented the total value of aquaculture product exports but not a breakdown by specific types. Despite this, the Icelandic dashboard of the fishing industry and aquaculture claimed that it is undoubtedly the significant increase in salmon farming that, as in previous months, accounts for this remarkable growth.
As has become customary in Radarinn's monthly reports on the value of Iceland's aquaculture exports, industry representatives took the opportunity to highlight its growing weight in the country's total exports.
"In monetary terms, the greatest increase over the past decade has been in the export of pharmaceuticals and medical devices. However, in terms of relative growth, fish farming has seen the highest rise. The export value of aquaculture products in the first ten months of this year was more than seven times greater than during the same period in 2015," Radarinn remarked.
Likewise, Radarinn also highlighted that no economic forecast has been published in Iceland lately without mentioning aquaculture, either about exports or investments, and gave as an example the forecasts of Íslandsbanki, Landsbankinn, and Statistics Iceland, which predicted an increase in exports in the coming years, with growth driven in part by increased exports of aquaculture products.
"This is very positive, as fish farming creates diverse and well-paying jobs that align with the goal of keeping Iceland a high-wage country with some of the best living standards in the world," the report read.
Indeed, as we recently learned, in Iceland more than 80% of those employed in aquaculture live in rural areas, and about 80% of the industry's revenues benefit the people who live there as, for example, those of the Westfjords region, where the value of aquaculture has skyrocketed from 2013.
The Icelandic dashboard of the fishing industry and aquaculture concluded by saying that, "if the current trend continues, fish farming will play a key role in Iceland's economy for years to come."