AUGUST 2024 FISH LANDINGS IN SCOTLAND

August 2024 fish landings in Scotland.

By Tony Mackay, Economist tony@tonymackay.co.uk

1. The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) have just published their monthly fish landings statistics for the UK for August 2024. The Scottish ones are set out below. The landings are by all UK and foreign vessels.
2. Overall, there was a small -5% fall in the value of fish landings in Scotland to just under £45 million, compared with August 2023, but a huge +32% increase in tonnage to 42,097.
3. That is better than the UK totals, which were a -10% fall in value but +20% increase in tonnage. Scotland accounted for 66.3% of the UK value and 78.9% of the tonnage of fish landed.
4. England ports accounted for 27.8% of the UK value total, Northern Ireland 4.9% and Wales 0.9%.
5. Seven of the nine Scottish ports/districts recorded falls in value and only 2 increases. Six recorded falls in tonnage and 3 increases. The value increases were in Lerwick (+108%) and Scrabster (+11%). The biggest declines were in Cullivoe (-63%), Scalloway (-49%) and Kinlochbervie (-44%). The biggest tonnage increases were in Lerwick (+186%) and Peterhead (+20%).
6. The value per tonne of fish landed fell by a massive -38% to £1,061 from £1,478 in August 2023.

7. Peterhead is by far the busiest fishing port in the UK, accounting for a massive 40% of the total Scottish value and 27% of the total UK value in August. The tonnage shares were 54% of the Scottish total and 43% of the UK. The port had a big +20% increase in the tonnage but a -1% fall in the value.
8. Lerwick was the second highest value port in August, recording huge +108% rises in value and +186% in tonnage. Some of those increases seem to have been attributable to falls elsewhere in Shetland (ie Cullivoe and Scalloway).
9. Fraserburgh slipped to 3rd in August, with a -25% fall in the value and -15% in tonnage landed.
10. I have included an additional table below which gives the 8 months’ totals from January to August 2024. The Scottish total value of £320.8 milion was -1.4% less than for the same period in 2023. The tonnage total of 218,710 was +7.7% higher. There has therefore been a fall in the value per tonne of about -9%, which must be a serious concern for the industry.

11. Only three ports have had increases in the value so far in 2024: Lerwick (+27%), Peterhead (+18%) and Kinlochbervie (+15%). The others have had declines, the worst being Cullivoe (-36%) and Ullapool (-33%).
12. Five ports have recorded increases in tonnage and four declines. Some of the tonnage changes have been surprising, notably the +11% rise in Fraserburgh, where the value is -8% lower.
13. Peterhead continues to dominate both the value and tonnage, accounting for 45% and 60% respectively of the Scottish totals.
14. I shall write a more detailed report on the 2023 annual totals when MMO publish the annual statistics. That will include the statistics for each of the various ports/districts which make up the “Other Scotland” category.