Iceland must ‘beef up’ salmon air links
ICELAND must improve its air transport links and copy the Scottish sector on products if it is to enable its growing farmed salmon exports to reach the right markets, a leading logistics expert has said.
Valdimar Óskarsson, managing director of the international forwarding service DB Schenker, based in Iceland, told a recent business conference that carrying capacity is far below demand.
The problem had become worse, especially to important markets in the United States, since the collapse of the airline WOW in March. His advice came as Iceland revealed the value of farmed fish exports jumped by 71 per cent to 8.6 billion kroner – or £54-million – during the first four months of this year. The announcement comes as Iceland’s parliament, the Althing, approved a new bill on the future of the industry which includes a number of amendments. The exports success reflects the growing confidence within the sector, which has built itself up slowly under highly stringent conditions, that it is now set to play a key role in the future economy of the country.
The Confederation of Icelandic Fishery Companies (SFS) said farmed fish (mainly salmon) now represented 10 per cent of all seafood exports, remarkable in a country which is renowned for its huge focus on conventional deep sea fishing.
SFS said: “The ratio has never been higher. Looking ahead we can safely assume that aquaculture exports will reach ISK 25 billion (around £160-million) this year. It is therefore clear that aquaculture is establishing itself as an important export industry, which is attracting a great deal of foreign currency to the country. ” April was the best month with overseas sales reaching ISK 2-billion, an increase of 137 per cent on the same month a year ago. Sales are also thought to have been helped by the recent depreciation of the kroner. Óskarsson said it was important that Iceland’s airports had a good international connection. But he added that flights from the country were expensive and this put its fish at a major price disadvantage. Óskarsson’s suggestion was to examine and possibly adopt the Faroese system, which includes sending the salmon first by ship to ports close to larger international airports and then flying it out on the final leg of the journey.