In Iceland the production of farmed fish has increased in the last few years and was 53 thousand tonnes in 2021, which was 12 thousand tonnes more than in 2020. Atlantic salmon is the main aquaculture product or 90% of all fish farming. The farming of arctic char was 5,390 tonnes in 2021 and rainbow trout was 951 tonnes.
Roughly 500 persons are employed in aquaculture production in Iceland in 2020 and about 600 persons in 2021. The turnover has increased tenfold from the year 2010 and was 40 billion ISK in 2020. The expected turnover for 2021 is 45 billion ISK according to VAT reports. The export value of fish farming products was 29 billion ISK in 2020 and 35 billion ISK in 2021 according to preliminary data.
In 2020 Norway was the largest producer of farmed salmon in Europe with over a million tonnes per year. United Kingdom produced about 200 thousand tonnes of Atlantic salmon and Faroe Islands about 73 thousand tonnes. Iceland was the fourth largest with 34 thousand tonnes of salmon produced in 2020. It is noteworthy that according to information from FAO for the year 2019 both Australia, Canada, Chile, Russia and the U.K. produced more of farmed Atlantic salmon than Iceland.