The fishing industry plays an important role in the Norwegian economy as a whole and in the rural districts along the coast in particular. The industry’s potential as regards the value added has received increased attention during the last years. To enable the national fishing industry to play an important role in the years to come, the resources have to be harvested in a sustainable way. The principle of a fair and stable sharing of resources between the countries involved must also be in the forefront to ensure the best international cooperation andsustainable management.
In order to be able to increase the value added, it is also important tobear in mind that the value of the catch must be increased and that the production costs have to be reduced.
Questions relating to the development and the future value added from the Norwegian fishing industry are often asked, and a clear and straightforward answer is sometimes difficult to give.
One method of answering such questions might be to study the development in the past.
The intention with this report is to give the reader a clear, intuitive and comprehensive understanding of what has actually happened in the Norwegian fishing industry in the last two decades of the last century, and this century. Focusing the presentation on some important keyfigures hopefully will give the necessary understanding of the main trends in the industry in this period. We have therefore focused on the development in the natural resources that form the basis for the fisheries – the fish, the quotas, the catch, the value of the catch and the production costs.
