Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (gross profit, EBITDA) as a proportion of operating revenue (excluding transactions of raw materials between enterprises) decreased from 25.4% to 21.1% in fishing and fish processing total, from 24.2% to 18.2% in fishing, and 11.9% to 10.6% in fish processing between 2016 and 2017.
Earnings before tax in fishing and fish processing (annuity method) decreased from 14.4% to 6.5% between 2016 and 2017. In 2017, total profits are 11.8 billion ISK after subtracting imputed cost of capital of 26.7 billion ISK. Using the standardized balancing methodology, total profits decrease from 24% to 6.8% between 2016 and 2017.
Factors of influence in fishing and fish processing
Important factor of influence during 2017 is the fishermen strike that lasted 10 weeks, starting in December 2016. The price of seafood products in international markets in ISK decreased by 6.7%, and the cost of oil increased on average by 25% between 2017 and 2016. During the same period, the USD depreciated by 11.6% and the EUR depreciated by 9.8%. In 2017, total export value in fishing and fish processing is 197 billion ISK, a 15.2% decline, whereas total export price in fishing and fish processing decreased by 12.1% and the total export volume decreased by 3.5%. In Iceland, about 7,600 employees are working in fishing and fish processing, roughly 3.9% of the total labour force in 2017. Fishing fees decreased from 6.9 billion ISK in 2016, to 4.6 billion ISK in 2017.
Decline in earnings for small fishing vessels in 2017
In 2017, there were 837 registered small fishing vessels with total catch volume of roughly 22 thousand tonnes, and total catch value in excess of 4.2 billion ISK. EBITDA, as a proportion of operating revenue, decreased from 13.8% to 13.3% between 2016 and 2017 for small fishing vessels. Of the 837 aforementioned vessels, 521 are registered as costal fishing vessels, with total catch volume of roughly 9.8 thousand tonnes, and total catch value of 1.9 billion ISK in 2017. EBITDA, as a proportion of operating revenue, decreased from 15.6% to 13.9% for costal fishing vessels whereas it increased from 11.3% to 12.8% for fishing vessels less than 10 GRT between 2016 and 2017.
Equity for fishing and fish processing in excess of 295 billion ISK
Total assets for fishing and fish processing are roughly 660 billion ISK for 2017. Total debt is in excess of 384 billion ISK, a 6.9% increase, and equity is roughly 276 billion ISK. The value of total assets increased by 6.2%, and investments in property, plants and equipment increased by 10% in 2017. The equity ratio decreases from 42.2% to 41.8% between 2016 and 2017. The figure below displays the rapid increase in equity since 2010, from 29 billion ISK to 276 billion ISK.
About
Statistics Iceland has compiled and analysed the operating accounts of fishing and fish processing companies for 2017 as well as their balance sheets. Information from these statements along with data on exports and catches were used to measure the overall profitability in the subsectors of these branches of industry.
The results show the profits of the main sub-sectors of these activities such as boats in several size categories, pelagic vessels, wet fish trawlers, freezing trawlers, processing of demersal species like freezing and salting, processing of pelagic and fresh fish processing.