Fisheries revenues declined in 2023 to the lowest level in over a decade

The total revenue of the fisheries sector in 2023 amounted to roughly €914 million which is the least in real terms since 2011. The sector employed 1,925 person-years.

A total of 1,720 companies operated in the fishery industry in 2023. The data concern companies that are engaged in commercial fishery, aquaculture, fish processing, wholesale and retail. For inland fishery, statistics only include class 1 commercial fishermen. Of all fishery industry companies, some 75 per cent were fishing companies, with most of these being small companies operating in coastal areas.

The majority of fisheries revenues were generated by fish processing (45%) and wholesale fish trade (33%).

“The total amount of fisheries revenues reached EUR 914 million. Revenues slightly increased (1 %) in the marine fisheries sector but declined in all other sectors. Overall, revenues decreased by EUR 87 million. EUR 141 million of the revenues were generated in primary production, of which commercial fisheries accounted for just over EUR 51 million” says Lauri Vesala, a research scientist at the Natural Resources Institute Finland.

The net profit for marine fisheries was EUR 4.6 million. The most profit (EUR 6.1 million) was recorded by fish wholesalers. The net profit for inland fishing companies was around EUR 0.9 million. The net profit for the fish processing sector improved, but the sector still made a loss of EUR 3.7 million. The profit for the retail trade sector was EUR 2 million. Aquaculture companies turned profitable recording a net profit of EUR 5 million. The value added generated by the fisheries sector amounted to approximately EUR 152 million and employment to 1,925 person-years.

Information in EconomyDoctor and luke.fi/en/statistics

Financial indicators of fishery industry companies are published in Luke’s EconomyDoctor and statistics database. Financial indicators for 2008–2022 are available in Finnish, Swedish and English. The companies’ financial indicators can be viewed in the case of processing and fish trade by company size, in the case of aquaculture by production line, and in the case of fishing by form of fishing. Data on coastal fishery can also be filtered according to turnover.

This is the final edition of the profitability of fisheries statistics published by the Natural Resources Institute Finland. Economic data on fisheries will continue to be published in EconomyDoctor. The figures published in EconomyDoctor are not fully comparable with the profitability statistics. Unlike the statistics, the figures in EconomyDoctor take wage adjustment into account when calculating the operating margin and net profit.