Big surge in Iceland salmon sales to US

The latest data reveals that Iceland’s farmed salmon exports to the US in January hit their highest peak yet so far.

Americans are buying more salmon from Iceland than ever, according to the Iceland Association of Fishing Companies.

In January sales were worth ISK 2.3bn or £13.2m. The figure is considerably higher than during the same month in 2024, says the Association, and several times the total just five years ago.

Iceland has a major advantage over rival producers, in that it is much closer to the North American continent.

While the United States is the largest market for Iceland’s farmed fish products so far this year, a great deal of salmon is being sold to the Netherlands and Denmark which have large seafood processing sectors.

The Dutch bought salmon worth ISK 1.6bn (£9.2m) while the Danish purchased a total of NOK 900m (£5.1m). The Association also said that exports to Germany were also growing significantly.

The export value of farmed products, mainly salmon, in the first two months of this year amounted to 14.6bn ISK (£84m) , an all-time high.

Last year, farmed seafood exports amounted to 13.1bn ISK (£75m) at constant prices. In 2019, the export value was just 4.7bn ISK (£27m). The increase since then is more than threefold, or exactly 211%.

The Association said that the volume of farmed products among all marine product sales had more than doubled to 26% in a year.

It has to be remembered that Iceland is also a huge exporter of wild catch white fish like cod and haddock and pelagics such as herring and mackerel.