The UK fleet recorded its third £1 billion turnover year in a row in 2019, according to figures published by Seafish.
Seafish’s The Economics of the UK Fishing Fleet 2019 report follows the release of the Fleet Economic performance dataset earlier this year and includes analysis from Seafish. A new online tool allowing users to access and explore the underlying data more easily has also been released.
The Economics of the UK Fishing Fleet 2019 report demonstrates that the total operating profit for the UK fleet in 2019 was £240 million, a similar figure to 2018 as drop in total costs offsets a decrease in income.
The total fishing income of the fleet decreased from £1.01 billion in 2018 to £980 million in 2019, as the total weight of landings decreased by 12%. Crew costs also decreased from £266 million in 2018 to £258 million in 2019.
While these figures are averaged across the fleet as a whole, the picture can vary considerably for different sections of the fleet and some individual vessels will have found 2019 to be a challenging year. To allow this underlying data to be accessed and analysed more easily Seafish has launched its new online Fleet Enquiry Tool.
The tool includes data for fleet economic performance, landings and activity as well as showing the performance of different classes of vessel over time. It allows users to easily filter and compare data relating to the UK fishing fleet as well as generate graphs and visualisations.
‘Accurate economic data from the fishing fleet helps to inform policy decisions and improve fisheries management. We saw earlier this year how significant this data can be when the UK government and devolved administrations used it to inform the Covid-19 support packages they created for fishing businesses,’ said Seafish chief economist Arina Motova.
‘We hope that this latest report and our new Fleet Enquiry Tool will be of value to government, the industry as a whole, and to individual vessel owners and skippers. While these both provide users with easy access to a large amount of data, those in industry are of course welcome to continue to contact us with specific questions or with requests for detailed enquiries and analysis.’
Economic data for the report and the fleet enquiry tool are collected during annual surveys of the fishing fleet conducted by Seafish. The 2020 survey is due to conclude shortly and Seafish has contacted all owners of UK registered vessels with information on how to complete the survey by post, online or phone. This year respondents are also being asked about the impact of Covid-19 on their businesses and how effective government support measures have been for them.
