FISH LANDINGS IN SCOTLAND IN JULY 2024

Fish landings in Scotland in July 2024. 

A note 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 July 2024. The Scottish ones are set out below. The landings are by all UK
and foreign vessels.
2. Overall, there was a small -4% fall in the value of fish landings in Scotland to just under £36 million, compared with July 2023, but a +12% increase in tonnage to 20,879.
3. That is a little worse than the UK totals, which were a +7% rise in value and +19% increase in tonnage. Scotland accounted for 51.1% of the UK value and 65.5% of the tonnage of fish landed.
4. England ports accounted for 43.3% of the UK value total, Northern Ireland 4.1% and Wales 1.5%.
5. Six of the nine Scottish ports/districts recorded falls in value and only 3 increases. Four recorded falls in tonnage and 4 increases. The value increases were in Peterhead (+22%), Ullapool (+18%) and Fraserburgh (+8%). The biggest declines were in Scrabster (-43%) and Scalloway (-23%). The biggest tonnage increases were in Peterhead (+34%) and Kinlochbervie (+16%).
6. The value per tonne of fish landed fell by -14% to £1,715 from £1,999 in July 2023.

7. Peterhead is by far the busiest fishing port in the UK, accounting for a massive 30% of the total Scottish value and 17% of the total UK value in July. The tonnage shares were 43% of the Scottish total and 27% of the UK. The port had big +22% increases in the value and +34% in tonnage.
8. Fraserburgh was the second highest value port, followed by Lerwick, Ullapool and Scrabster. It was another disappointing month for Scrabster, however, as the statistics show.
9. I have included an additional table below which gives the 7 months’ totals from January to July 2024. The Scottish total value of £276.2 million was -0.8% less than for the same period in 2023. The tonnage total of 176,613 was +3.3% higher. There has therefore been a fall in the value per tonne.

10. Three ports have had increases in the value so far in 2024: Kinlochbervie (+24%), Peterhead (+21%) and Lerwick (+13%). The others have had declines, the worst being Ullapool (-34%), Cullivoe (-31%) and Scrabster (-24%).
11. Some of the tonnage changes have been surprising, notably the +16% rise in Fraserburgh, where the value is -5% lower.
12. Peterhead continues to dominate both the value and tonnage, accounting for 45% and 61% respectively of the Scottish totals.
13. 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.