Iceland salmon exports take off

The export value of Icelandic farmed fish has reached more than £150m (ISK 27.3 billion) during the first seven months of 2024, according to the latest official figures.

Statistics Iceland said most of this was due to higher salmon sales, which are now starting to rival other northern hemisphere salmon producing countries. Iceland’s salmon exports between January and July this year totalled ISK 22.4bn (almost £124m), 28% higher than in the same period in 2023.

The growth in salmon farming over the past few years is little short of phenomenal. In the past seven years they have increased tenfold to ISK 24.4bn in 2022. They fell somewhat last year, due to a number of farming facilities being out of action for various operational reasons.

Icelandic salmon companies have been stepping up production this year and a number of new salmon farm projects are currently underway, suggesting that exports will continue to increase at pace.

There was a slight reduction in Arctic char (a form of trout) sales during the first half of this year which totalled £15m.

Statistics Iceland said it was a similar story for the high tech product fertilised salmon ova, which was worth around ISK 1 billion (£5.5m) .

In fact the pace of Iceland’s farmed fish exports accelerated even further during August, for which figures have just been published. They were worth ISK 3.4bn (around £19m), an increase of 60% on a year ago.

Iceland’s salmon output generally speeds up during the high summer months, but there is no doubt that the country’s salmon sector is now becoming a force to be reckoned with.