According to Argentina official figure its ports received a total of 12,422.5 tonnes of seafood in January this year, 17.5 per cent less than in the first month of 2009 when landings totalled 15,058.8 tonnes. It is revealed that out of total landings, 12,122.6 tonnes were of fish, 44.4 tonnes of crustaceans, and 255.5 tonnes of mollusks.
These statistics released by the Subsecretariat of Fisheries and Aquaculture, a dependency of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries (MINAGRI). The landings of fish reached 15.4 percent compared to the 14,321.7 tonnes unloaded during January 2009. Regarding molluscs, the retraction was 37.7 per cent against the 410 tonnes of the previous year. As far as crustaceans, the fall was of 86.5 per cent from the 327.1 tonnes landed in January 2009.
MINAGRI released data which shows that the highest landings through 1 February were registered by common hake (Merluccius hubbsi), which totalled 4,857 tonnes. This volume represents a 28.5 per cent decrease from the 6,788.2 tonnes landed in January 2009. Argentina’s most favoured fish hoki registered 413.2 tonnes in the first month of 2010, means 63.3 percent more than the 253 tonnes landed the year before; and 41.4 tonnes of Argentine red shrimp (Pleoticus muelleri), against 320.1 tonnes in 2009, a slump of 87.1 percent.
Other landings included 243.2 tonnes of squid (Illex argentinus), 41 percent more than in the same month the year before, when 172.4 tonnes were unloaded.San Antonio Este, Rio Negro, was ranked second, with 596.8 tonnes; followed by Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, with 529.8 tonnes; Comodoro Rivadavia, Chubut, with 484.3 tonnes; and Port Madryn, Chubut, with 218.2 tonnes, among other port terminals.
