There has been a significant growth in aquaculture in Iceland with fish farming production increasing eightfold in the last decade. The amount produced in 2020 was 40.6 thousand tonnes (table 1). Most of the growth has been in salmon farming where the yield has gone from 1,068 tonnes to 34,000 tonnes in 2020.

Arctic char is the second largest bred species with 5,000 tonnes produced in 2020. Breeding of rainbow trout reached a climax in 2017 when 4,600 tonnes were produced compared with 490 tonnes in 2020.

The number of people employed in aquaculture in 2019 was 488 according to the latest economic accounts. The revenue of businesses in aquaculture was 29 billion ISK in 2019 and had tripled from 2015. The expected revenue for 2020 is 32 billion ISK according to rollover data from VAT reports.

Export and comparison with other countries
The export value of farmed fish has increased alongside increase in production. About 70% of the aquaculture products have been exported in recent years (table 3). Accourding to preliminary export data, the export value of farmed salmon was 22.6 billion ISK in 2020 which was a 22% increase from 2019. The export of troutfish, arctic char and rainbow trout has been around 3-5 thousand tonnes in recent years and on average 70% of the production has been exported. The export value of trouts in 2020 was 5.5 billion ISK, 9.6% increase from the previous year.

Norway was by far the largest producer of farmed salmon in Europe in 2020 with 85% of the production according to Eurostat (table 4). Iceland was, however, the largest producer of arctic char in Europe last year.

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