Fish landings down by a third

Fish landings declined by more than a third in volume last year over the year before.

The National Statistics Office said a total of 848,682 kilogrammes, a drop of 34.5 per cent, were landed at the fish market in 2007.

The decline in volume was mainly due to a fall in dorado and blue fin tuna landings by 52.7 per cent and 45.5 per cent. As a result, the wholesale price per kilogramme of these two fish species increased by 95.5 per cent and 9.2 per cent respectively. Notwithstanding the increase in average prices of the major species of fish landed, the wholesale value at the fish market declined by 11.6 per cent to stand at €4.96 million (Lm2.13 million) in 2007.

In the fourth quarter, the volume of fish landings declined by 33.7 per cent and the wholesale value fell by 10.4 per cent compared to the same period the year before.

A total of 240,341kg of fresh fish was landed, with declines registered in dorado, stone fish and stone bass.

The wholesale value of fish landed in that quarter stood at €1.03 million (Lm0.44million).