Contact
Jónas Rúnar Viðarsson
Director of Business and Development
jonas@matis.is
At the end of November 2017, a two-day working meeting was held in the town of Gander in Newfoundland to discuss how Newfoundlanders can prepare for increased cod fishing, but it is expected that the cod stock will recover in the coming years.
As most people know, there was a complete collapse of the Canadian cod stock a quarter of a century ago, which ended with all cod fishing being banned in 1992. At that time, fishing went from about 300 thousand tons a year to nothing, almost overnight. Catches from the stock had been even higher a decade earlier, when annual catches reached 800,000 tonnes, at its peak. This was followed by redundancies and unemployment figures that have not been seen before or since in Newfoundland.
Now the stock is starting to show signs that it is something to come and fishing is allowed up to about 10 thousand tons this year. However, there have been few changes in the fleet and processing since the ban came into force, so the industry is not at all prepared for increased fishing. The workshop, which was attended by about 200 people, discussed how best to build the industry - as stated in the title of the workshop, which was "cod - building the industry for the future" (Cod - Building the Fishery of the Future). ). Among other things, experts from Norway and Iceland were brought in to present the state of affairs in their fishing, processing and marketing. In addition, various experts in marketing and market analysis were called in to give good advice. Ögmundur Knútsson from the University of Akureyri, Axel Helgason from the National Association of Small Boat Owners and Jónas R. Viðarsson from Matís were called in from Iceland. There was a consensus in their approach that Newfoundlanders need to invest enormously in fishing and processing to ensure the right quality and that they do not have to invent the wheel when it comes to it. Icelandic companies have the knowledge and solutions they can use. They also urged Newfoundlanders not to regard other cod fishing nations as competitors, it is in the interest of all of us that Newfoundlanders be able to produce cod products of the highest quality and that it will actually strengthen and expand the market for all producers' products. If, on the other hand, Newfoundlanders do not fulfill their responsibility to produce cod products of the right quality, it will possibly have a negative effect on the market for other cod fishing nations.