FISH LANDINGS IN SCOTLAND IN JUNE 2024

Fish landings in Scotland in June 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 June 2024. The Scottish ones are set out below. The landings are by all UK and foreign vessels.
2. Overall, there was a big -18% fall in the value of fish landings in Scotland to just over £32 million, compared with June 2023, and also a -18% fall in tonnage to 13,964.
3. That is worse than the UK totals, which were -14% declines in both value and tonnage. Scotland accounted for 57.4% of the UK value and 65.5% of the tonnage of fish landed.
4. England ports accounted for 32.6% of the UK value total, Northern Ireland 5.2% and Wales 4.7%.
5. Six of the nine Scottish ports/districts recorded falls in value and only 3 increases. Seven recorded falls in tonnage and only 2 increases. The value increases were in Lerwick (+15%), Kinlochbervie (+10%) and Peterhead (+4%). The biggest declines were in Scrabster (-34%) and Other Scotland (-31%). The tonnage increases were also in Kinlochbervie (+10%) and Lerwick (+4%).
6. The value per tonne of fish landed rose slightly to £2,311 from £2,279 in May.

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 June. The tonnage shares were 43% of the Scottish total and 27% of the UK. The port had a +4% increase in the June value but -11% fall in tonnage.
8. Lerwick was the second highest value port, followed by Fraserburgh, Scrabster and Kinlochbervie. It was a disappointing month for Scrabster, however, as the statistics show.
9. I have included an additional table below which gives the 6 month totals from January to June 2024. The Scottish total value of £240.4 million was just -0.3% less than for the same period in
2023. The tonnage total of 155,734 was +2.2% more than in the first half of last year.

10. Three ports have had increases in the value so far in 2024: Kinlochbervie (+29%), Peterhead (+21%) and Lerwick (+14%). The others have had declines, the worst being Ullapool (-38%), Cullivoe (-25%) and Scrabster (-21%).
11. Some of the tonnage changes have been surprising, notably the +18% rise in Fraserburgh, where the value is -7% lower.
12. Peterhead has dominated both the value and tonnage, accounting for 47% and 62% 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 the various ports/districts which make up the “Other
Scotland” category.