Finland Times

 

File Photo – Lehtikuva.

The fishing economy for the year 2014 involved almost 1800 companies with a total income of 957 million euros, said the Natural Resources Centre (Luke).

 

Most of the companies in the sector, or 72 percent, are fishing companies. For example, there were 1,295 fishing companies in the sea industry. The majority of these were fishing vessels un-der 12 meters in length, or small coastal fishing enterprises.

 

Fishing companies achieved revenues of 40 million euros in 2014. The large trawlers saw a loss, affected by, among other things, falling herring and sprat exports to Russia. Also, small coastal fishermen saw a loss.

 

The income of large-scale coastal fishermen and small trawlers, however, increased, and millions of euros were invested in the development of operations.

 

Fishing companies employ just over 2,800 man-years in Finland. Most of the fishing industry workers, or 38 percent, work in fish processing operations. The number of person-years increased in fish processing, as well as at the wholesale level, but decreased in primary production, or fisheries and aquaculture.

 

The fishing economy's greatest returns, almost 400 million euros, came from fish processing for consumers.

 

The key financial performance indicators of the fishing economy was published for the first time on the National Resources Institute Finland’s Economy Doctor website under Kalanjalostus and kalakauppa (Fish processing and fish wholesale and retail) and in the statistics database.